Return to the Unknown
by formerAnnie
Summary: A linguistics major in California investigates an old professor's dusty lab; meanwhile, in another time and galaxy, a restless Jedi is breaking into a Separatist lab. They both find strange devices and records that have references to 'soul switching'. A mistake on their part may actually right a terrible wrong.
1. Dreams of Reality

Welcome! So, despite writer's block on my Stargate story, I somehow discovered some inspiration for this tale I've been cooking up. You can expect steady updates for this for a while, since I have built up quite a few chapters. My head has practically been spinning with midterms, concerts, etc. I'll leave you to the story. Enjoy!

Dreams of Reality

_She was walking down a long metallic hallway, stopping every few feet as soldiers in white full-body armor marched through one hallway or another. She didn't trust them. Just because the Republic was using them didn't mean she had to be happy about it._

"_Something wrong?" her gun-wielding partner asked, coming around the corner and startling her. "Sheena, I know you don't like being cooped up on a ship full of clones, but at least it's safer here than most places right now. I just wanted to let you know that we're receiving a transmission from Senator Organa. He said it's urgent…something about life or death…?"_

_"How much longer until we reach Kashyyyk?"_

_"Less than an hour."_

_Before the woman could move to follow her faithful companion back to the bridge, the clone commander approached with his helmet removed._

"_What is it, Jon?" she inquired, her pleasant, motherly voice calm despite the disturbance she felt through the Force. _

"_Mistress Lerann, I just received an order from the highest authority. With regret…" _

_Sheena's hand slowly moved towards the lightsaber at her belt as several clones began lining up behind Jon._

"_I assume this order came from Sidious?"_

_Jon straightened and looked sympathetically at the Jedi and her roguish companion. _

"_It has been an honor serving with you both."_

"_As it has with you," said the Jedi, offering the Makashi salute with her now-engaged weapon._

_The clones raised their weapons and fired._

The just twenty-one-year-old awoke with a sharp yell, banging her head on the overhead light at her desk. As she nursed her self-imposed injury, a young man with straight but full black hair, expressive brown eyes, and Prince Charming features cautiously entered the bedroom. His mouth twitched as he fought to hide his amusement.

"What are you still doing here, Jake?" the girl asked, noting that the boy was just as bleary-eyed as she felt.

"I was so tired after our study group that I just crashed on your couch. I figured your roommates wouldn't mind."

"Your apartment is just a block away, Jake."

He shrugged.

"Your scream woke me up."

"I did not scream," was the snappy retort.

"Are you okay, Kim?"

Kim rubbed her eyes and stared down at her textbook, realizing that absolutely none of it made any sense. Physics was not her strong suit. Why was she even taking this class? Right. To satisfy her father, the astrophysicist. Her parents were both brilliant scientific minds. The fact that she shared none of their intellectual passions frustrated them frequently. She preferred literature, history, language, and the outdoors; they liked math, science, and technology.

"Just an overactive imagination, too many Red Bulls, and a big exam tomorrow."

"Well, it's the last exam and we're home free until Senior year."

"I wish I had actually paid attention in this class."

"Uh-huh."

"I'm getting all A's in my other classes!" she defended.

"Which include Dance, Languages of the World, French, Interpretation of Law, and Choir…"

"All of which are upper division courses. You're probably getting a C in that Law class, if you're lucky, so don't growl at me about Physics. As long as I pass the class, I couldn't care less. I need some water."

Without another word, Kim grabbed the crutches by her desk and hobbled off towards the kitchen. Stupid hiking accident…

She was completely unaware of Jake's sad stare before he followed her.

* * *

_She was aware that it was a dream. She had learned to use dreams to find answers in real life multiple times. It rarely failed her. This one, however, was one of the more strange dreams._

_She was walking steadily along the mountain ridge with a steep drop on the left. A few feet of trail were all that was between her and a neck-breaking fall. The terrain was beautiful but deadly to city-folk. She was aware that there were about ten people behind her. She had volunteered to lead them on a week-long hike during the spring break along the Pacific Crest Trail. She realized now that she should have gone alone or with just a friend or two. All but three of these people had little to no experience hiking and they seemed determined to prove it. _

_A cry and the sound of sliding rocks summoned her attention._

"_Kim, we need the rope!"_

_Kim nimbly ran to the end of the panicking group to where Scott, a cocky Freshman at her college, was clinging to a tree root about fifteen feet down the perilous slope. His foot appeared to be caught in a rock crevice. About fifty feet further was a sheer drop down the towering mountain range._

"_I don't even want to know," the girl grumbled before raising her voice. "Scott, just hold on! I'm coming to get you." Removing her pack, Kim detached a rope from it and proceeded to hand one end to Jake and hook the other to a harness around her waist. "You three, help Jake support the weight. You might need to drag Scott back up here. Check your cell phones for a signal. He'll probably need medical attention."_

_Slowly, she picked her way down to the stupid boy, pausing when she reached him to find a better foothold than the wobbly rock that presently held her weight._

"_Here, let me steady that rock for you."_

"_Scott, don't!"_

_Too late. In the process of trying to provide a more steady foothold, Scott had lost his own balance and ended up hitting Kim, who in turn lost her own balance and went tumbling downhill another twenty feet before the people on the other end could steady themselves and grip the rope. Along the way, she heard and felt a distinct _snap _in her ankle as her foot got snagged in another rock crevice._

"_Are you okay?!" a chorus of voices called._

"_Any luck with the cell service?" Kim growled through grinding teeth. "The hike is canceled. Stupid tourists…"_

Sheena awoke cringing from the pain in her dream. She had dreamt of this young woman on numerous occasions. Nothing about her seemed familiar and she never met her, so the Jedi had long resigned herself to the dreams. Master Yoda had advised that she be watchful of them, but they had no significant impact on her life beyond being an escape from reality.

Obi-Wan Kenobi, one of the two Jedi she had been partnered with on this mission, peeked into the sleeping quarters.

"The pilot says that we should get there soon. You should get ready."

Sheena bit back a retort that she was always ready and collapsed back on the bed as soon as the Jedi Master left. She hated missions. Admittedly, they were great for the prestige and getting to see other cultures, but she preferred to be in the Jedi library or training younglings or inventing something. She wasn't the most adventurous Jedi ever. The main reason they wanted her on this mission was because of the possible technology they would find in this Separatist lab. Hopefully, it would be worth tearing her away from reading about the history of Darth Malak and Revan and the possible impact they had on present Sith thinking.

If she had been a little more competitive, Sheena could have become a Jedi Master two months ago, but she just didn't care for it. The Force was certainly a great gift and she valued the balance that the Jedi brought the galaxy over the centuries, but her life simply did not revolve around it. As a child, when her friends were sneaking off to races and cantinas in the lower city, she was sneaking off to visit scientists and libraries.

Sheena met her fellow two Jedi at the door to the miniature hangar with their shuttle.

"Are you clear on what our mission is?" Obi-Wan asked as he secured a communicator on his belt.

Sheena looked behind her to make sure that he was actually talking to her.

"I was there at the briefing too, Obi-Wan. I may not be a war hero like you, but I'm still a trained Jedi. I know what I'm doing."

Obi-Wan nodded and a call came through his com.

"Master Kenobi," the careless voice said, "we've reached Argai. I hope you have a good coat. I hear it's pretty chilly on that rock."

"We've heard a lot of things," the man replied. "Thank you for the ride, Captain Onasi."

"Any time, Master Jedi. Let me know when you're ready to be picked up. Tell your lady friend that she can take up my offer for a drink whenever she likes."

Sheena blushed slightly, but said nothing.

"We'll see you soon."

"It seems someone has a crush on you," Anakin chuckled, stepping onto the unmarked shuttle with his companions.

Sheena ignored the comment, instead asking,

"Do you think that Captain Onasi might be descended from Carth Onasi from the time of Revan?"

"Pretty good chance of it. After three thousand years, the family would probably be spread across the galaxy. The name has apparently survived."

"Hm." Sheena's interest had ended there. "Let's get this over with."

Falling silent, Sheena let herself slip into her own world. The only real reason she was on this mission was because this particular Separatist base was reported to have a highly sophisticated lab that needed someone experienced to examine what was dangerous or valuable. Aside from that, she had so far been treated as a mere passenger. She was used to it, though. She was different; it was a simple fact. She was perfectly capable of taking care of herself, but she didn't show off her abilities like many other Jedi. She passed the Jedi tests brilliantly at the age of nineteen, a couple of weeks after the Battle of Geonosis.

What made matters worse for her ever since childhood was the fact that all of her memories prior to the age of seven were a bit…foggy. Actually, she remembered pretty much nothing. She did, however, remember Yoda talking to her about it. The first time she had actually seen the green Jedi Master face-to-face, she had been terrified but fascinated. He hadn't seemed sure of her at first (she had, after all, been found wandering around the halls of the Jedi Temple barely an hour after daybreak with no memory of how she had gotten there), but he quickly became one of her dearest friends and confidantes. He had known everything about her, while she hardly knew her own name.

"_Frightened are you?" the little Jedi asked, approaching the wide-eyed child upon dismissing all but two of the other Masters from the meeting room._

_The girl shifted nervously._

"_A little."_

"_Remember your name do you?"_

_Her pale face screwed itself into a tight knot of concentration._

"_It's… I think my name is Sheena…Sheena Lerann."_

"_You think?" the tall, dark-skinned man demanded a little sharply, causing Sheena's mouth to go dry._

"_I…I don't know. I have a bunch of thoughts that don't make sense. Can you help?"_

"_Hmm," the green one hummed. "Much confusion I sense in you, but deceiving us you are not. Something has...changed."_

"_She does not seem to recall any of us, yet I__ do not sense that she is a threat either," the tall-headed one stated._

"_You can return to your training and we'll try to help you," the dark man offered a little more kindly than before, holding a hand out to Sheena, who took it. He glanced pointedly at the green Master, who nodded. "Sheena, do you mind if we go down to the infirmary and get a sample of your blood? It won't hurt."_

"_Okay…sir."_

"_You may call me Master Windu."_

_As she followed Master Windu out into the hall, Sheena vaguely heard the short one comment to his companion:_

"_A close eye we must keep on our younglings. Her attackers we know not."_

_"What would they want with a child that was worth the risk of taking her from the Jedi Temple itself?"_

* * *

_Kim stared the psychologist down. She had just told the story for the fifth time and, now, her only question so far was, 'What is your relationship with this boy that fell…Scott?' She actually wanted to give a sarcastic answer of 'He's an idiot', but she had a feeling that wouldn't go down very well. Kim wasn't the type of person to stay angry with someone. She had held two grudges in her entire life, both for very good reasons. For some reason, however, every single person she ran into since the spring break had insisted that she take advantage of the free counseling services on the college campus to resolve her 'deep-seated issues'. _

_She really didn't care either way. Sure, she would make sure that Scott knew what he had done, but she was forgiving by nature. Scott was a good kid who just didn't belong in the wilderness and she knew that. She didn't have any issues that she couldn't deal with on she own._

_Slowly, the counselor looked at the file compiled from Kim's medical records, leaving the reluctant patient to shift in her chair uneasily._

"_How are your classes, Kimberly?"_

"_You can just call me Kim…and my classes are fine."_

"_And you're a Junior at USC…?"_

"_I'm majoring in Linguistics, and minoring in Music. I considered Archeology, but the major I have is more suited for future plans."_

"_You enjoy music?"_

"_Yes. I'm in the Chamber Singers and the women's choir."_

"_I thought I recognized you… Your parents are scientists…an astrophysicist and a math professor, correct?" Kim resisted the urge to grit her teeth as she nodded. She was here to satisfy her teachers, parents, and friends by talking about her accident; instead, this aggravating woman was jumping around with small talk. "What made you choose Linguistics? Did you ever consider following your folks into the more abstract sciences?"_

"_I prefer to be more hands-on with my work. I have a friend who was in Special Forces. I love languages and I want to possibly get involved in the military, FBI...something like that. They can always use more linguists."_

"_So your career choice has nothing to do with your parents…?"_

"_Why would it?" _

"_Well, apparently, you were quite interested in math and the idea of physics until you were about…seven. Do you remember if there was a significant shift in your life that changed that?"_

"_I…" Then something dawned on Kim. This woman was probably the psychology doctoral student she had heard about from one of her friends. She was determined to pin everyone's problems on family troubles and had gotten herself in trouble because of it more than once. "Wait a second…you're trying to eventually get around to _suggesting_ that the reason I majored in linguistics and not math or some other technical science is because I'm rebelling against my parents for not giving me enough of a nurturing environment as a child. _

"_You're going to say that it's the same reason I bottle up emotions, go on crazy hiking trips, sing early music that I know my parents don't like, and have avoided taking any classes from my mother." She continued in an accusatory yet bored fashion, putting no emotional effort whatsoever into her rant. "You're going to try to pin all my problems on my relationship with my parents when the reason I'm here is because I was stupid enough to let a stupid Freshman come on a stupid hiking trip…you'll probably even say that I _jumped _down that mountain or that I _pushed _Scott down that hill because of my parent issues. _

"_I know what modern scientists like you are like – you push and prod and study and experiment just to see what the results are, basing everything off of a few stupid rules and findings and then running with it. Do me a favor. Why don't you study some of the real world; actually look at the lives of the people here, who you consider to be your inferiors. Go spend some time with a poor, rural family and see their love for each other and the simple things in life."_

_In reality, she wasn't actually as passionate about degrading psychologists as she sounded; she just had seen too many young professionals slip into prejudice and assumption, which they were never supposed to do. She had taken a psychology class during her Sophomore year, so she appreciated what psychologists did. But she hated being analyzed. So…this was the way she would throw the woman off of her trail, confuse her, and make a quick getaway._

"_In short," Kim concluded with a smirk at the other student's gaping face, "…take a vacation, Blondie."_

_It worked. The psychologist said nothing when Kim picked up her bag and left the office. She wasn't really one for words, but desperation had given way to senseless babbling. Whatever. It was effective._

"How did your test go?"

Kim broke from her reverie as she exited the classroom to find Jake on a bench waiting for her. She had taken two of the three hours to finish her physics exam (only because she couldn't think of any more answers); Jake had taken less than an hour.

"Fine."

"Hey, you wanna get some coffee?"

"Uh," Kim hummed reluctantly. "Okay. But first, I wanted to check one of the labs upstairs. I keep passing by it and it looks like there's some pretty cool stuff there."

"Sure," Jake replied somewhat hopefully, following the hobbling girl to the elevator.

"There's this really weird professor I've seen skulking around some old machinery up there."

"Oh," was the disappointed sigh. "Well, how about some video games later before we meet up with Rick tonight?"

"Count on it. Oh, and I keep wanting to show you the book I'm working on. I'm kind of stuck."

"That's the one you're basing off of the dreams you've been having?"

"Indeed. What's weird is that the dreams don't seem to be in order any more. I write them down in a notebook, but I have no idea where to place them in the book."

Well, here's the start. More to come. May the Force be with you.


	2. Ensnared

Ensnared

"Blasted! Where did he come from?" Sheena exclaimed, wiping the blood away from her bruising lip. A Separatist guard had around the corner and clipped her in the jaw with the butt of his gun before Anakin eliminated him.

"A bit rusty, are we?" the young man teased, earning scowl from Sheena.

"All right, you two," interrupted Obi-Wan. "The main lab should be down this way. If we don't make too much noise, this should be easy. Sheena, ready yourself."

The woman rolled her eyes. One slip had caused the boys to go right back to treating her like a passenger instead of an equal. The technology in this lab was possibly vital to the Republic's success or failure…at least that was the rumor from one of their operatives. Sheena was the best chance they had at deciphering this technology. She was their expert and she knew it. They, however, had no idea how valuable she was. She was a great mind. She was brilliant. She just never had the chance to prove it. Everything revolved around the Force and the war against the Sith and the Separatists. There was no chance for someone like her.

* * *

"Sheena, I need good news."

"I need five more minutes!"

"Can you at least tell us if there's anything useful and/or dangerous here?"

"Yes," was the reply. Sheena poked her head up from the computer to point at several objects. "We'll want to bring that, that, and _that_…and we'll want to destroy that, that, and…definitely that."

"I'm on it!" Anakin chirped.

"Everything else isn't any big surprise or threat."

"So what's taking so long?" Master Kenobi insisted.

"I'm simultaneously downloading all of the plans and information from this base while trying to find the safest route out of here. I think they know we're here. We might have tripped an alarm."

"All right. Let's go."

"Here," said Sheena, tossing the computer chip to Obi-Wan. "This has all the information. You go ahead and get our shuttle ready…you'll want to take a left, a right, and another left, then go through the air vent and into the shuttle bay. I'll be right behind you. I need to wipe the computer memory. It'll take them at least a few weeks to rebuild all of this data."

"You sure you're all right here?"

"Yes! Go!" she snapped, sending the boys off. It probably wasn't the best of ideas to leave herself alone in this base, but she was tired of feeling babysat.

While the computer was loading, the Jedi looked around, fascinated by all of the tech surrounding her. She could have spent weeks here. One particularly large piece under a sheet caught her attention. Upon looking at her data pad, she only discovered some sort of the scientific garble that even she could barely make out. The most she could make out of it was the term 'soul-switching', which was plenty disturbing even without the mystery added to it. With the computer still loading, she took the time to remove the sheet and bent down to peek at the large black metal device with handbars.

* * *

"Can you believe someone actually built all of this stuff, only to have it stored away to collect dust?" Kim asked, pulling some of the sheets off of strange metal contraptions. "I wonder whose lab this was. It's weird that they would just leave it here…kind of eerie."

Jake, who seemed to be pouting for some reason, started flipping a few switches. His mood was changed upon seeing the results: the water in the attached fish tank started floating around like a lava lamp.

"Wow. Not worthy of any prizes, but it's pretty."

"Jake, look at these records." She flipped open a large dusty blue folder. "It looks like it documents a lot of the stuff in here."

"I thought you didn't like tech."

"I don't, but I can still think some of it is interesting." After flipping through a few pages, Kim stopped at a sketch of an object that looked like that backside of a plane. "Check this out. This guy thought he had figured out a way for coma patients to talk to their loved ones or figuring out child illnesses. He thought it would be useful for murder victims too before they died, though if the patient's body gave out before the process was done, the volunteer would die too."

"What?!"

"Something about switching personalities."

While Kim went to find this invention, Jake started looking through the book on his own.

"He used the term 'soul-switching' for the one you were looking at…kind of cheesy, in my opinion. Hey, look! He has some theory about intergalactic space travel. Look at these algorithms!"

Kim ignored her friend, removing the sheet from the object of her search. There was something about it…

"No, don't touch that!" a man suddenly barked. A pudgy, snowy-haired gent in a white lab coat flew through the lab door and put himself defensively between the students and the strange machine.

"Sorry," Kim breathed, taken aback by the newcomer's desperation. She realized that he was in fact one of the professors that only taught a couple of classes and spent most of their time doing research. "We were just curious."

The man was shaking and nervous.

"It's all right for you to look but…" He somehow noticed the switches that Jake had flipped and proceeded to put them back in their original positions. "…but I'm a fool if I'm to let a couple of nosy kids mess with my inventions."

"Wait. These are _your_ inventions?"

"Y…yes."

"What is this thing? Are you some sort of psychopath?"

"Oh. You read my notes. No, this…it was my greatest and worst invention. I don't know why I built it. It was years ago. I wanted it to be destroyed, but…" He paused and looked closely at Kim. "Do I know you?"

"I haven't taken any of your classes, but you may have seen me in passing."

"Hm. Interesting. Your name?"

"Kim Weaver."

"Kim…as in Kimberly?"

"…yes."

Why was this man suddenly being so creepy? A strange glimmer was shining in his tired eyes.

"Kimberly Weaver…I knew your parents! Your father and I were colleagues at…well, that doesn't matter. You said you were looking at this particular machine."

"…yes."

"I worked on it with your father. Let me tell you more. It's quite fascinating."

The more excited this scientist became, the more Kim felt that she was about to be very bored; however, when he was actually discussing what it did rather than how he built it, she was quite interested.

* * *

Sheena's communicator suddenly beeped as a message came through in the form of Obi-Wan's hushed voice.

"Sheena, you'd better be halfway to the shuttle bay by now. The base is crawling with guards."

The woman shook herself and tore her gaze away from the contraption she had been staring at for the past few minutes. There was something almost familiar about it, but she couldn't place it no matter how hard she tried.

"Yeah. I'm on my way," she replied to the Jedi, picking her datapad and turning to leave. Upon doing so, however, encountered half a dozen guards and a white-haired man with a lightsaber. On instinct, she pressed the talk button on the com when her soon-to-be captor spoke.

"I assume that you are Sheena Lerann. I remembering finding your history very…interesting. Let me introduce myself. I am Count Dooku. Now, give me that communicator."

When Sheena slowly moved to obey, it simply floated from her hand as Dooku retrieved it with the Force. Despite her training and calm demeanor, her voice shook a little when she spoke.

"I don't know what is so interesting about me. The important Jedi are already gone. Why are you at this base, anyway?"

"I have my reasons," the Count declared vaguely, looking at the com. "To the Jedi Knights who have invaded this station, surrender now...or I will kill your friend."

The woman shook her head. They wouldn't give themselves up after all this…and Dooku wouldn't kill her so carelessly. It wasn't his style.

Dooku opened his mouth to speak again; however, Sheena beat him to it. She would probably regret this.

"This is Sheena. RUN!"

Dooku was not happy.

* * *

"Listen," Kim finally interrupted, to a very interested Jake's obvious disappointment. "I honestly lost this at, 'this is quite fascinating.' I'm a linguist headed for the military. I find knives, languages, artifacts, and _people_ fascinating…well, the last I prefer at a distance, most of the time. Can you translate what you just said into a language I can understand?"

"Maybe it would be better if I showed you, uh…Kimberly."

Kim shrugged, glancing at Jake to make sure he would be there for her if this scientist lost his mind in the middle of the switch.

"If it's not going to injure me…"

"No! Unless…no, you will remain uninjured. I'll make it so that you can switch with me...the closest person in proximity."

* * *

"Get your hands off of me!"

Sheena, after being shot with a stun rifle, had not taken long to regain her senses. The guards had managed to prop her on a stool, remove her lightsaber and give it to Dooku, and bind her hands to the handlebars of the machine. The metal chords cut cruelly into her flesh. After struggling against them for a moment and finding no satisfying results, the girl looked at the scene before her.

Two of the guards were guarding the door, two were standing directly behind her, and the other two were pacing the hallway outside. Dooku was sitting at a nearby computer that now had cables running to the black machine, pressing buttons. He looked perfectly in control. At a signal from the Count, one of the guards stuck a small, silver C-shaped device to Sheena's temple.

"What do you want?" she demanded warily.

"What we want, my dear, is something you've wanted for now fourteen years, though you are not conscious of it. I confess, when my master told me of your coming here and the circumstances of your…appearance, I was rather doubtful; however, now that I see you… There is something wrong about you. He promised that this would all be worth the trouble, but I think I'm wasting valuable time."

"I don't really fancy you, either."

"What I mean is…prepare yourself, Jedi. I'm about to do you a great favor, though you do not see it. Of course, if things are not right with your counterpart, well…this may give you a slight headache."

Sheena's eyes widened. Yes, she was a Jedi and she had trained for this, but pain had never been her forte…and, from Dooku's tone, it wasn't just going to be a little headache.

* * *

Kim's face twitched with discomfort at the several electrodes around her face. The professor had insisted on this and securing her hands to the handlebars of the machine, which did not please her one bit. Apparently, the transfer could cause her to jump or something in the middle and throw off the whole process.

"I know you're a curious and adventurous person, Kim, but are you sure this is a good idea? We can't afford to have something happen to you."

"What harm could it do? From what he said, it sounds like it could give me a glance into someone else's life maybe. And he was a friend of my father...Dad used to talk about him all the time. I'm tired and bored after that exam and this seems fun. Soul-switching...sounds like something from a movie or book..."

"Kim..."

"I know: Me and my imagination."

"Are you sure this won't hurt her?" Jake asked the professor from the stool he had claimed.

"Yes…positive."

"By the way, I'm Jake."

"I'm Dr. Pierce. Now, Miss Weaver, just give me a few moments...don't forget to hold onto the bars. I think you'll find this experience very enlightening…and maybe I'll be forgiven. Jake, could you take this key and lock the door? That's a good lad."

* * *

Sheena's scream echoed down the halls of the Separatist base. Between the restraints and the guards, there was no way for her to get away from the searing pain that felt like it was shooting straight through her hands and into her brain from the machine. Even after only a few minutes of this, she was already drenched with sweat and panting. Dooku merely hummed as if puzzled.

"Strange. My master said it was supposed to work…well, a few more tries won't hurt. He did mention that the other machine had to be functioning."

"Please…stop…whatever you're doing…just stop."

Sheena's plea was unheard as the man restarted the sequence.

"Have fun…Master Jedi."

* * *

After Dr. Pierce had activated the device, Kim slowly started to feel…displaced. She started seeing flashes of a completely foreign scene between moments of reality. She realized that the professor had been lying when he said he would switch with her...unless he didn't know.

Something was wrong about this whole thing. In another flash, she recognized a man in black with thinning white hair; he had a sadistically pleased smile on his face.

"Jake, something's not..." she managed upon switching back to the lab one more time. "I can't... My book…"


	3. Identity Theft

Identity Theft

Sheena looked around wildly. She looked down at her hands; they were still bound, but with different, softer cords…and her hands were not her own. She was still in a lab, but this one was cluttered and dusty – the style of the furniture and technology appeared to be fairly inferior compared to what she was accustomed to.

There were two people there: an old man and a boy of about twenty or so. If she freed herself, they wouldn't be a problem, but what then? The old man looked almost gleeful but the boy looked frightened and confused. Were things really as they seemed?

"Who are you?" she demanded quietly, noting that her new voice was a tone or so higher than normal. She cleared her throat and went on, only to discover that this voice was the real voice. "Where am I? What is going on?"

"Professor?" the boy asked worriedly, coming to stand beside the man. Sheena briefly noted that the boy was fairly handsome before staring at the apparent man in charge. "What happened to Kim?"

"It's all right, Jake," the professor whispered, licking his lips nervously. "I called Kim's father when I saw you were coming. It's all… Everything will be better. I can't believe it worked!"

"Professor…"

"Let me go or I'll…" Sheena paused before finishing. She had reached out for the Force to aid her, but she felt nothing. It was true that she rarely made use of the Force in everyday life, but this was not the day for it to just disappear. "What have you done to me? Why can't I sense the Force?"

"The what?! Professor, why did you call Dr. Weaver? Did you know that this would happen? Did you know Kim was going to start talking like a crazy woman?!"

"Do you mind not talking to me as if I'm not here?" Sheena growled, suddenly feeling not as threatened. "And why do you keep calling me 'Kim'?"

Finally, the man seemed to start coming off of his intellectual mountain and addressed her.

"Ki… What do I call you for now?"

"My _name _is Sheena."

"All right…Sheena. What do remember from before you were about…seven or eight perhaps?"

"Why do you ask that?"

He held his hands up in surrender.

"I promise we don't want to hurt you. Just… If you promise not to hurt us or run off, I think I can explain a few things for you. I have a colleague coming who can help. It will just be a few moments. My name is Dr. Pierce; this is Jake."

"You will explain everything? How do I know I can trust you?"

"I'm afraid you won't know until we take the time to explain it. Now please let me loosen this rope."

* * *

A dream – a book…that's all this was supposed to be. It wasn't real! She had fantasized that it was…noble men, elusive villains, grand wars… But it wasn't real! Maybe the process had gone wrong and she went into a coma to protect herself. Maybe this was all just in her head.

"Who are you?" she repeated for the third time, testing her voice, which had suddenly taken on a sound that made her think of a medieval warrior princess…there went her imagination again… The white-haired man stared at her with mild surprise on his face before finally rising to approach.

"So…it actually worked."

"This. Is. Impossible."

Kim looked around with wide eyes, realizing that the scene before her was far more realistic than any of her dreams. With her dreams, there was certain…fogginess about them. This was too real for that. The metal cords certainly felt painful enough; an apparent struggle had left her wrists raw and sore.

"Improbable," the man stated, now standing only a couple of feet away, "but not impossible. I am Count Dooku."

"Kim Weaver."

"I think not."

"Excuse me?"

* * *

"Kimberly?"

A man in his mid-forties with brown hair and eyes, wearing glasses, quickly entered upon being admitted by the key-bearing Jake. He stopped when the young woman shrank from the excitement.

"You must be Dr. Weaver. Explain what is happening to me. Now. Where am I?"

Dr. Weaver's expression was a mix of joy and devastation.

"Kim, it's me."

She raised her eyebrows.

"Your point? If you're not going to let me contact the Jedi Council, explain what is going on. Why can't I feel the Force?"

The man's face twitched a little.

"Dr. Pierce, can I talk to you for a moment?"

"Uh…okay."

Sheepishly, the other scientist followed. Even though the door was closed behind them, Sheena could hear their conversation.

"Frank, what were you thinking? You can't just go messing with people's heads without their permission."

"She gave her permission."

"Did you tell her exactly what it would do?"

"No, but…"

"Frank, you had no right! This is my daughter we're talking about!"

"But she's back, Mike. Kim is back."

"You know perfectly well that that's not Kim anymore. She doesn't know me. We have to fix this!"

"You know as well as I do that it won't work."

"Then what were you thinking?"

"Mike, not even a week after the incident, your wife came to me and insisted that I leave it here, just in case. She told me that, even if there was just the slightest of chances, she wanted her daughter – her real daughter – back. You know how your wife is. I couldn't say no."

"I _told _you to disassemble this machine."

"After what we did, it would have only worked for Kim anyway until now. Jake, stay away from that!" Jake had been curiously about to touch it. As though he had eyes in the back of his head, the professor burst back in with his friend in tow. "You don't know if someone could be touching it on the other end."

"Other end?" the lad questioned. "What are you talking about? Isn't this the only machine?"

Pierce sighed and looked dejectedly at the woman.

"We built this machine for the good of all people…and for science. I found…it couldn't be… The only way this could have happened is if, by a one in a million chance, there was a machine exactly like it somewhere else. Now, Kim…I mean Sheena, where were you right before you came here?"

"I was in the Separatist base on the planet Argai on the Outer Rim. We were there to investigate any technology they were working on that could be a threat to the Republic. Generals Kenobi and Skywalker were going back to the shuttle bay when Count Dooku… What?"

Sheena noticed the men all staring at her with mouths gaping.

"Planet on the Outer Rim? Shuttle bay?" one squeaked. "Count _who_?" said another.

"How can you not know Count Dooku? He's one of the greatest threats to our galaxy today. He's a Sith!"

"A Sith?" "Our galaxy?"

"Would you stop looking at me like I'm crazy! You're to be enlightening me, but you people look more almost just as confused."

"I'm sorry, dear," Dr. Weaver said modestly. He seemed much more in control than the other two. "They're assuming that it's only possible that you came from…this planet."

"That's a bit narrow-minded. There are countless planets in the galaxy that carry many different life forms."

"I think we're talking about a different galaxy."

"What?"

"Can you…enlighten us, please? Maybe we can figure this out."

* * *

"Wait. You're saying that I grew up in the wrong body? Do you realize how crazy that sounds? Sorry. I'm forgetting that I'm in a place that I dreamed up."

"No, this is quite real. Perhaps I can enlighten you."

Until that moment, Kim had not noticed the small device on the side of her head; however, now, Dooku seemed to be activating it. Searing pain shot into her head as flashes of what she once considered dreams flooded her mind.

"_Wait! Who are you?!"_

Kim shook her head, hissing from the throbbing pain. That girl wasn't her. It shouldn't have been…

"_Hush, child. This, my apprentice, is how we shall eliminate this immanent threat. It has all been planned perfectly."_

"Stop," Kim groaned, straining against the guards' hold.

"_Let me go!"_

"_Quiet! Just imagine, Sheena…a nice family with a bright future…you've never had a family."_

Suddenly, something kicked in that Kim had never felt before. It was instinctual, but there was an intense power behind it.

"_Quickly. Get her on the shuttle before someone comes."_

"Stop!" Kim demanded, surprised by the power in her voice. "That's not who I am!"

With a single thought, all of the guards had been bashed against the wall and knocked unconscious. Dooku looked mildly surprised. Unlocking her bindings with a key from a guard and ripping off the still-stinging device on her face, the woman magically retrieved what, upon holding, she realized to be a weapon. The blade, once activated, looked like a glowing yellow laser beam. This was wrong. This wasn't her. But she knew she was in danger here. Whatever answers she may have gotten weren't worth the risk of being this man's prisoner for a second longer.

"So, you remember," Count Dooku noted, engaging his red-bladed sword.

"Nope. I guess I just have good instincts."

"Perhaps." Dooku lowered his sword and extended his left hand towards Kim. Lightening shot out of his fingers, sending its victim to the floor for a second. The pain was unbearable! It felt like all of her nerves had been set on fire. Once she was down, he paused. "Instincts alone will not help you in this universe. You need cunning, agility, logic, and a strong mind. You will not survive here long, Mistress Lerann. And that is why you are here now."

He moved to continue with the lightening; however, this time, something else clicked in Kim. It wasn't a memory and it wasn't quite instinct, but she just raised her hand in self-defense and stopped it. The lightening just bounced off of her palm, headed straight for the Count, and sent him flying into the closed door. Seeing that the tide was turning, he seemed to think better of his attack and began to make his getaway.

"We will meet again, Mistress Lerann."

With that, he fled down the hall.

* * *

"You mentioned that you found something," Sheena urged after giving an overview of her own story.

"It was just…on my computer one day - an idea, a formula. I have no idea where it came from or what it was, but it just appeared there. It was way beyond my comprehension. I thought I had written when I was drunk or something…we were having some tough times. With Dr. Weaver's help, I was able to decipher it as a formula for the building of a machine to…switch bodies. We figured that it could be one of the biggest breakthroughs of our time. I mean…coma patients, young children, accident victims, assault victims…so many people could be helped with this sort of communication. Kim…you were sick at the time and, through a process of several tests, we knew it was safe, so…we used you.

"After we realized that you had switched with someone else, we did everything we could to fix what we had done, but the other end had obviously been disconnected. With your mother's insistence, I kept the machine around even though Dr. Weaver told me to disassemble it. I thought that…maybe there would be a chance that I could fix my mistake…maybe you would be subconsciously drawn to this place at the right time. I honestly didn't think it would work."

Sheena narrowed her eyes.

"How do I know I can believe you?"

"Let us show you."

"How?"

"With the nodes on your face, I might be able to stimulate your brain and you might remember the events leading up to the switch. But it may not work. It's just…"

"Do it. I want to know why I can't remember anything from my early childhood. I want to know why Count Dooku did this to me. I want to know why _you _did this to me."

"All right," Pierce said uncertainly. "Are you ready now?"

"Sure."

"It shouldn't be painful, but…"

"Just do it," Sheena interrupted seriously.

There was no pain. Unlike Dooku, these people were careful not to hurt her. After a moment, she saw a few flashes that didn't really seem familiar.

"_Daddy, what's going on?"_

"_It's okay, Kimmy. Remember how you said you wanted to help me at work? Well, you know how you said you haven't been feeling well lately? We think this machine can help us figure out what's wrong."_

"_How?"_

"_Well, one of us puts their hands on the handles there and Dr. Pierce will put some things on our faces to connect us…like he's doing now. Basically, sweetie, for a few minutes, you'll be in my body and I'll be in yours. If I'm experiencing your symptoms firsthand, then I might be able to figure out what's going on."_

"_Will it hurt?"_

"_I'll make sure it doesn't."_

"_Okay."_

_There was a moment's pause while the adults were finishing getting the machine ready. Kim entertained herself by swinging her legs back and forth since the stool was tall enough for her legs to dangle._

"_Ready?"_

_Kim nodded, smiling sweetly and grabbing the handles on the machine. After some typing and button-pushing, she started feeling a little strange…not like herself._

"_Daddy?" she asked worriedly before everything faded to black. _

_Suddenly, she was feeling very sleepy, her hands were tied up, and it was very cold. She tried to open her eyes, but it felt like her eyelids were glued shut._

"_Give her another dose of the sedative and let's get her back to the Temple," a disturbing voice said. "Just wait a few years. Sheena Lerann will no longer be a threat to us. The Master's visions will no longer cause him worry in this regard."_

"_What if we made some mistake by doing this? We don't know how this will affect us."_

"_The Master has seen Sheena growing in a society without the Force and without the events that will build a Jedi worthy of concern. Do you doubt his vision?"_

"_Of course not."_

"_It is obvious that these people to whom we sent the formula are gullible enough to not realize its true purpose. If this is the case, I believe we are quite safe."_

_She remembered being vaguely aware of being in a dark alley…then in an infirmary with a nurse hovering…_

The woman opened her eyes in shock as a few more rather random memories came flooding back to her. This was real. Slowly, she looked at the three men and began removing the nodes from her face.

"This is real. I was Kim Weaver.


	4. Familiar Discoveries

Familiar Discoveries

"Have to escape. Have to get out. Have to keep running."

This was the mantra that Kim kept whispering to herself as she snuck down the halls of the strange station. Several windows had revealed that the outside was very rocky and unpleasant-looking…and the sky didn't look right, assuming that she was even on Earth and in reality. But what was reality anymore? It all seemed familiar in a way, but her brain felt so scrambled that she couldn't place it.

"Mistress Lerann!" a man called from ahead while Kim was looking through another window. She reacted instantly by engaging her sword, but the man raised his hands in surrender. He was rather young and had floppy, sandy brown hair, mischievous eyes, and a well-toned body. "It's okay. It's just me. We got your warning to run, but, between Anakin's stubbornness and Obi-Wan's concern and curiosity, we decided to stick around. I came down a few minutes ago to see if I could hear anything about you being captured…when the others weren't looking."

Kim hadn't moved. She didn't know this place or this man and she was still shaking from Count Dooku's lightening. The man was slowly approaching and she was quickly realizing that her strength was nearly spent. She couldn't fight him even if her life depended on it. Her legs gave out just as he reached her and caught her from hitting the floor.

"What did they do to you?" the man asked, glancing at her raw wrists as he carried her into a small shuttle of sorts. "Masters," he said upon taking off.

"What were you thinking!" a sort of British-accented voice cried through the speakers. "You were paid to fly us discreetly to the planet and back – not to go gallivanting on some secret quest for glory."

"My apologies, but I think you'll be happy I did. I found Mistress Lerann…just in time too. It looks like she was captured and escaped. I don't know what they did to her in such a short time, but she's pretty banged up. She acted like she didn't even recognize me."

"Try to get back here without being detected, Captain. We don't need a Separatist fleet chasing us all the way back to Coruscant."

"No problem. And you should let them know to have their infirmary ready. Our friend here needs some help."

Just as she slipped into the void, Kim's last thought was that this captain fellow had a very pleasant voice.

* * *

"So, um…this is your room. If it looks a little empty, it's 'cause most of your stuff is still in your dorm. Your parents will get your stuff before move-out day, but…maybe something here might trigger a memory or something."

Jake had been assigned to giving Sheena the grand tour of her upper-middle class home on the outskirts of the city called LA while Dr. Weaver prepared to greet his wife with the news of her daughter's…identity crisis. Poor Jake was trying to remain composed, but it was a bit much for him to imagine that his best friend had just been switched to another body, in another galaxy. She actually felt a little bad for him.

Sheena sort of understood what had happened, now that some of her memory was coming back, but it was hard to believe that she may have really been living someone else's life all these years. She could only imagine what her counterpart was going through. Had she escaped from Dooku or was he now briefing her about the great plans they had in store for her? Would she ever find out? Could she ever return?

She knew there was no foreseeable way of going back. Dr. Weaver and Dr. Pierce had allowed her to study the machinery and records thoroughly. Something about the genetic code of individuals or something made it so that two people, once back in their proper place, could not switch with each other again. There was some chance that it could be changed, but the technology was incredibly advanced, even by her standards.

"Well," said Jake, "Do you want some water?"

Sheena nodded absentmindedly and started looking around at room when Jake left. It was fairly spacious and on the second floor of the house with a view of the setting sun in the distance. The walls and the high, slanted ceiling were off-white, the floor was wooden, and the furniture seemed to reflect comfort and work ethic at the same time. To the right of the window, there was a fairly large, soft bed with pale blue and grey bedding and two tall black bookcases on either side of it; a black dresser with a mirror a closet; a wooden desk opposite with a computer and more books; and, taking up the corner across from the door, a large computer screen with various contraptions cluttered around it, a small cooling unit for food and drinks, and two very comfortable-looking grey chairs. She vaguely noticed that one of the small cases piled near the screen read, 'Skyrim'.

Upon examining the bookshelves, Sheena noticed that this 'Kim' was interested in various things, all organized into their own categories: languages, archeology, history, music, animals, hiking, self-defense, science fiction, and something called 'video games'. There were several posters on the pale walls: one advertising a musical concert, one displaying a large forest with a path through it, one of a group of rather serious people with the tag 'Lord of the Rings', and one that was simply a photograph of small sleeping infant being held in the palm of someone's hand.

For some reason, the woman was drawn to a small stuffed animal - a puppy - sitting against the mirror on the dresser. It was soft and tan but yellowed with age; it had big brown sad eyes and small droopy ears. When Sheena moved to pick it up, she suddenly caught sight of herself for the first time since the switch. She couldn't help but stare and wonder…why did the sight seem so comfortable but disturbing at the same time? Why did this seem so…right? She felt empty without the Force, but this was…right.

She never really noticed herself in the mirror that often (vanity was frowned upon by the Jedi), but this was something different. The image before her was of a twenty-one-year-old woman. She was about 5'6'' with wavy, shoulder-length sandy blonde hair, deep brown almond-shaped eyes, a small nose, and a smooth oval face. Her body was muscular, healthily tanned, and mildly shapely. Sheena unconsciously stroked the stuffed animal.

"_Mommy, can I take Cory with me to the dentist's?" Kim asked, hugging her toy close._

"_Who's Cory, honey? Oh, your toy. Come on, Kim. We're going to be late."_

Kim…Sheena shook herself. She didn't understand these flashes.

"Do you know why you turn your toes out like that when you're just standing in one place?" said a woman with light blonde hair as she entered the room. Sheena looked down at her feet. It wasn't unusual; she had always stood like that. "Your father and I had you in ballet lessons from ages four to fifteen…quite the little dancer you were. You simply tolerated it for the first few years; then, after the…accident…you loved it. I suppose you loved the focus it involved. But I suppose that wasn't you, really."

Sheena looked at the woman questioningly, turning away from the mirror with the animal still in her arms. She had the same eyes and physical structure as the reflection.

"I'm your…her…your mother," the lady continued, uncertain how to proceed. "I suppose you are the real Kim." Sheena said nothing. "But I guess you don't remember…and I guess you must blame me for pulling you out of your familiar surroundings. I can only imagine what the other Kim is going through. How can you ever forgive me?"

"I'm sure the 'other Kim' is certainly in a more desperate situation than I am in right now," the younger woman stated matter-of-factly. She was finally facing the woman who had apparently forced Dr. Pierce to keep the machine running and allow her supposed return.

"Were you with people who could help her through this like you've had?"

Sheena snorted with bitter amusement; the woman's husband had come to listen as well.

"Assuming that she escaped…"

"Escaped? From what?"

"The reason I was in position for this switch is because I was forced by one of my galaxy's worst living threats. I was breaking into an enemy lab with two of my companions. They had just left and I was about to follow when I was stunned, captured, and tied to that machine. They tried several times to initiate the switch before it worked. Apparently, both ends have to be activated at the exact same time. It was…painful."

"I'm sorry." The woman stared at the floor, ashamed. "It's a mother's worry. You must understand."

"I never knew my mother. Since it seems that this is a permanent situation…I suppose I'll have to adjust. I only hope that the 'other Kim' escaped and has found my companions. The Council…our leaders, I mean, will certainly be able to help her adapt. Is there any possible way that you can think of that I can communicate with them? There is a war going on, so this was the worst possible time for me to leave."

Dr. Weaver shook his head.

"Not that I know of. I'll see what I can do, but it'll take time. Dr. Pierce already explained that the technology isn't even ours; we figured that this sort of thing was completely impossible until all this happened. I guess it somehow came from your galaxy."

"I only wish I knew why…"

A moment of silence followed, which was finally broken by the other woman.

"I suppose you can call me Kathy for now. Do you think you'll be all right here…after all that's happened?"

"Yeah. I'll be fine. You wanted your real daughter back. You were desperate. I just hope it's not a terrible mistake."

"Dinner will be ready in an hour. You can rest and make yourself comfortable 'til then. Mike and Jake will get the rest of your stuff from the dorm tomorrow."

As soon as the door closed, Sheena turned back to the mirror with her eyes alight with anger. They had no right! _No right!_ She was all for science, curiosity, the desire to set things right…but didn't they realize that, after fourteen years, original Kim and original Sheena would consider where they were their home? Despite these flashes of her past before the Jedi, she still felt connected to the Order and her galaxy. It was her home.

Admittedly, the Force and the Order had never been a priority to her scientific mind. Admittedly, she hadn't seen everything here, but this place felt…empty. Part of her screamed that it was right, but it was empty. She wanted her lightsaber at her side; she wanted to feel the Force flowing through her; she wanted to hear the voice of her Master urging her forward; she wanted to know that the Jedi Temple on Coruscant would be waiting for her and that this was all a dream. But it was all gone. It was really gone. Her entire life had been a lie, all because of the curiosity of these people and the mysterious plot of the Sith.

* * *

"Sheena? Are you quite all right? You haven't said anything since you woke up. We'll be back at Coruscant soon and we can have the medics check you out."

Kim looked blankly at the man kneeling in front of her. The last thing she remembered of the base was running into a young man with Indiana Jones-like clothing and a large blaster, and passing out. After that, she woke up on this bench in a small lounge area with two other men hovering over her. The young man was tall and potentially intimidating with brown hair almost to his shoulders in a mullet and intense eyes. The speaker's physique was still strong but less intimidating and he had shorter brown hair and kind eyes. Her previous rescuer was nowhere in sight.

"Obi-Wan," the taller man said, "she might be in shock. We don't know what Dooku did to her."

"There's something more going on here, Anakin. I sense that something's not right here. Sheena has been known to do a lot of strange things, but this… Sheena, please say something."

Kim blinked a couple of times. The reason she hadn't been talking was because she was trying to figure out what the heck had happened exactly. This wasn't Earth; this wasn't even the galaxy she had grown up in. These were the people from her dreams, from the book she was writing. She didn't think it was actually real…but here they were. And she…she was Sheena Lerann. She didn't know how it was possible, but she had just been thrown into the world of her dreams.

Taking a deep breath, Kim slowly touched the man's face.

"You're actually real. You're here." Then she remembered her last vision. "The clones! Jon and the rest…they shot at me and…how long ago was that? How did I escape?"

Obi-Wan looked supremely confused and stood to his full height with arms crossed.

"Sheena, the clones have never been more loyal or helpful since they came to our aid over a year ago. What makes you think otherwise?"

"It was…a dream or something."

"You lie down and rest. I suggest you talk to a doctor _and _the Council about this dream of yours."

Still looking a bit suspicious, Obi-Wan left for another compartment, leaving Anakin behind with Kim.

"Anakin, you believe me, right?"

The lad seemed uncomfortable.

"Visions…can mean many things. I've had visions that mean nothing and others that…mean everything. Are you all right?"

"Yeah, but… There's a reason I'm not acting like myself. It's because…well, I'm not myself. I'm not the Sheena you grew up knowing. Honestly, I don't know who I am anymore after what Dooku started to show me."

"What did he do to you? What did he show you?" Kim said nothing in reply to that. "Sheena, if you need someone to talk to…"

"Anakin, do you have a datapad…something with information about what's going on right now?"

He handed her a thin black computer with a touchscreen, explaining,

"It doesn't have much – just details surrounding this mission and the information you downloaded before we split up. You'll have to go to the Jedi library archives if you want much more. Of course, you already knew that."

Kim gave him a brief smile and no explanation before instantly flipping through the information on the computer until she found a familiar machine with handles. Her wrists were still an angry red from being bound to that contraption. Questions raced through her mind as she read the scientists' notes about the device. Why her? How did the machine here look almost exactly like the one in Dr. Pierce's lab? What was the fuss about being 'switched back to the right body'? Did she actually belong here? How?

"Sheena," Anakin said again.

"Yeah?" she answered automatically.

"We'll figure this out, whatever is going on. I promise."

"I don't know if anyone can…except maybe Dooku. He seemed to know what was going on."


	5. This is Real

This is Real

"Well, physically, you're in perfect health. Mentally, I can't explain it. Somehow, you just…"

"Switched personalities?" Kim offered tiredly to the doctor standing in front of her in the infirmary.

"Exactly. I suppose the Council will be able to sort things out better. The Force does some strange things."

"This was technology, though."

"I'm a medical doctor. I can't explain it."

Kim shook her head as the doctor walked away, leaving the girl alone. She didn't understand how comfortable she felt here. This was a completely different world than the one she grew up in, but she seemed to understand everything despite the unfamiliarity. Things like the Jedi Council, clones, space ships, a city-planet, aliens everywhere, robot nurses – most of these didn't even make her think twice. Was it because of her dreams and the book she was writing that made her feel accustomed to her present environment? Could this possibly be her natural home like Dooku had suggested?

Looking down at the long, pale, delicate fingers that were hers, Kim suddenly realized that she hadn't seen herself in a mirror yet. She had seen Sheena in her dreams, but this was reality. Reality… Again, she shook her head.

"I don't understand. I grew up in LA, California, but this feels even more natural than I thought possible. How is this possible?! Okay. Get a grip, Kim. For all you know, there's a really good reason this happened. This is so cool! Your living the life you fantasized about. I don't think anyone has ever done that before…not like this. But what will Jake and Rick do? The plan…our investigation…"

"Mistress Lerann?"

Kim turned around in a flash upon hearing the young boy behind her. He was a little over waist-high with short black hair and bright green eyes.

"Yes?" Kim cleared her voice, still unused to it. "What do you want?"

"Master Yoda wishes to see you in one of the training rooms. He told me to escort you there."

"Right…"

On the way through the Jedi Temple, Kim couldn't help but marvel at its grandeur and couldn't help but instantly fall in love with the place. Great, magnificent pillars towered above to support the tremendous outer shell of the immeasurable building. Men, women, and children of all shapes and sizes wearing numerous variations of their Order's robes passed by the duo. A few greeted Kim familiarly as 'Mistress Lerann', to which she responded with a polite nod. She knew many things about this realm from her dreams, but most of them only concerned a select group of people.

"Mistress Lerann, are you quite all right?" her guide inquired.

"Why do you ask?"

"It's just…whenever I see you walking down these halls, you're always staring at a datapad or talking with one of the librarians or scientists. You never seemed that interested in your surroundings."

Kim's eyebrows drew together in thought.

"I'm…different now. What is your name?"

"Brant."

"Well, Brant, let me tell you a secret. I really am a different person – same body, but a different personality. I think the woman you know is in my body where I grew up."

The boy's eyes went wide.

"What planet?"

"It's called Earth…but I don't think anyone here has heard about it. My people have certainly never heard of the Force or Jedi."

"Never heard of it…and I've studied every starmap I can get my hands on."

"The machine that brought me here was both here and there. Someone intended for this to happen, I think. I'm hoping the Council can help me."

"If your people have never heard of the Jedi, how do you know about us?"

"It's a long story."

* * *

"You can stop apologizing, you know."

"I know," groaned Kathy from across the table, "but it's my fault that this all happened. If I hadn't insisted that we keep the machine running, you wouldn't be here."

"If that's the truth, then the other Kim is back where she belongs and I've come home. We won't know anything until we investigate further. I have seen that you have no ill intentions, so you can stop worrying."

There was a moment of silence as Kathy uncomfortably glanced at a perpetually quiet Mike. Sheena had overheard a very heated argument in the kitchen between the couple about how ethical this switch was.

"_We had no right to keep that machine running! This might be the real Kim, but she's not the Kim we've known and loved for the past fourteen years. We raised her and cared for her…and now this!"_

"_Michael Weaver, you know she never belonged here. Do not make me sound foolish just for the sake of argument because you know I'm right. We both know that the only reason she wanted to major in languages or archeology is because we wanted her to do something with one of our fields. When she wasn't at school, she would go off hiking, writing, or helping at the soup kitchen, not that I object to that. This Kim…she actually wants to look at that machine and examine its inner workings. She's a scientist. A real scientist, just like we always dreamed of having for our daughter."_

"_It's actually like you don't even care about the girl we raised as our daughter."_

"_Of course I care, Mike. But I think she was never truly happy here. She's back where she belongs. We've set things right."_

"_I can only hope you're right."_

"I'll say again that it's not your fault. If you don't stop being cross at each other, I'm going to go crazy," Sheena insisted, dropping her fork. When asked what she wanted to eat, she had said _Xixor_ salad. They had made _Caesar_ salad…close enough. Now, they were demolishing a 'chocolate cake'.

"I'm sorry, Kim," Kathy said, not noticing the name she had used.

"It's all right. But you've said sorry enough. I'm going to study the machine tomorrow and who knows what will happen then. For now, let's move on. How about…tell me about Kim as a little girl."

* * *

"…after the captain caught me, I woke up on the ship and we came here," Kim said, concluding her long-winded tale. She had just summarized in ten minutes her life story of growing up in LA. She told them of having strange dreams of another time and place, never fitting in, and finally stumbling upon Dr. Pierce's lab and finding herself suddenly at the mercy of Count Dooku. She told them how he seemed to know what was going on but didn't have the chance to explain because she had made her escape.

She stood before a small group of three Jedi: the short green, big-eared Yoda; the tall, dark, bald, and serious Mace Windu; and the tall-headed, pale, bearded Ki-Adi-Mundi. Their meeting had taken place in an empty, spacious training room; apparently they didn't want her situation to become the gossip of the Temple.

"You say that Dooku didn't tell you the purpose of this…experiment," Ki-Adi offered.

"No, but…he started to use the machines to…coax some memories up that I didn't recall before. But I didn't let him get far enough to make much sense out of it. It was me in this body being grabbed by some strange men and ending up tied to that machine. They said something about eliminating a threat and that I would 'have a nice family'. Forgive me if this is too much of an assumption, but I've been thinking… Is it possible that I'm the real Sheena and I was forced into Kim's body to avoid some sort of catastrophe?"

"Strange are these events," Yoda hummed, leaning heavily on his cane. "Unknown the reasons are. Perhaps we will discover their meaning in time."

"Meanwhile, what am I supposed to do? What was Sheena to the Order?"

"You are a researcher for the Jedi," Ki-Adi explained. "You're one of the people most responsible for predicting where our enemies might go based on their background, looking into their history, and finding resources that can help us in this war. Most of the time, in the latter case, we just send a few other Jedi to investigate these resources after being briefed by you. On this mission, however, it was prudent to send you along since you were most familiar with what has been shipped to that Separatist base over the past ten years or so."

"A researcher? So, I never get any…significant missions abroad?"

"Boring you consider her duties? They were very important."

Kim worked her jaw before responding as coolly as she could manage.

"I understand that they were important, but I am _not _her. I like research and history – I almost became a linguistics major, for cryin' out loud! – but what I really love is being out there." She vaguely gestured. "That other woman may have loved having her nose in a book all the time; so do I, with moderation, but what I really love is helping people and climbing mountains. I experienced what a Jedi can do when I first arrived. I understand that Sheena's…my work was important, but I'm not that person anymore. And this isn't a grab for power. If this is going to be permanent in any way, please do not waste my energy doing research."

The Jedi before her stared thoughtfully. She knew that these people strongly disapproved of outbursts such as the one she nearly provided.

"What about the clones?" she continued quietly.

"What about them?" Master Windu echoed.

"In one of my dreams, they rebelled. They shot at me. When did that happen? No one seems to know. Is it classified or something? What?" The Masters had all exchanged puzzled looks.

"Though we were all wary about trusting the intentions of these clones initially, we have learned that they are dependable, loyal, and trustworthy. Not a single one has shown any indication otherwise."

"But I _saw _it happen. One of the clones received an order and shot at me."

"The origin of this vision we may never know. Perhaps a possible future it is…or perhaps not," Yoda said.

"In the meantime," declared Windu, "if you're going to be more than a researcher, I suggest you start training. Having been raised in such a different universe, you are probably unfamiliar with many of our ways. I will have Anakin Skywalker work with your fighting skills. Another Jedi will educate you in the ways of the Force…or at least glean from your abilities what sort of training you will need. We are at war. We need experienced fighters, not dreamers."

Somewhat hurt by the last statement, Kim bowed and waited for the Masters to file out. Before departing, Yoda gave her one piece of advice:

"Kept a journal Sheena did. Read it you should."

* * *

"Are you sure you don't need help?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Sheena muttered, stumbling up the last stair with her crutches with Jake close behind her. Finally, she clunked into her bedroom and went to open the window for airflow.

"In your visions that you had, how much did you know about this world?"

"I knew that your friend was a good person, that this family was somewhat troubled but loving and stable, and that this world is greatly unrecognized for its beauty. Back where I grew up, there were magnificent worlds and gorgeous cities, but I never really noticed. Seeing this place through Kim's eyes, though… However sarcastic and introverted she may be at times, she looks at the world around her with hope and awe. Every time she went hiking in the High Sierras or cared for one of the animals at the dog shelter, I felt her love for life."

"And what are you?"

"I'm me. I'm the type of woman who loves research, books, science, and a good conversation. But I think my visions – being so involved in her life – really may have changed me. I don't know how much, though."

"Before the other Kim, my friend, was switched away, she mentioned her book. She'd been writing notes for it since before I met her. All of the stories come from her dreams or mind-wandering, but…what's weird is that her main character's name was Sheena Lerann." With that, the lad retrieved a black leather notebook full of loose papers from the top desk drawer. "I was going to look at it, but I have a feeling that it might be of more use to you."

"So…Kim had visions of me too?"

"I guess. She was trying to organize them chronologically for her book, but I don't know how successful she was."

After an awkward silence, he moved to leave.

"Jake…ever since I came here… I have always had dreams about a girl living in a strange world. If I was dreaming about Kim and she was dreaming about me…there may be something more to all of this than just an accident. My captors seemed very confident that they were doing something devious. Maybe this is how it was supposed to be."

"I'd like to hear that from Kim." There was a slight edge in his voice.

Sheena sat down on the bed with a sigh, putting aside the crutches.

"I fear that may not happen. The galaxy is a big place and that base was very secure and dangerous. If she escaped, it's pretty much impossible that she'll ever return. I'll study the machine to find any possible alternative, but I think both of us are stuck. What was she like, from your point of view?"

"She a good person. Before we officially met in college, I went to her high school for my junior year and I heard she talked down the class bully from beating up one of the freshmen in the girl's locker room. She could be really quiet and aloof – always dreaming and letting her mind wander, which was great for her writing – but she knew when to come out of her shell.

"Just during this last spring break, she took me and a few other students on a big hiking trip. It quickly ended when a show-off fell down the hill. She went straight into action to save him. She certainly growled about how stupid he was, but she did what needed to be done to try to help him. That's how you have the fractured ankle right now."

He was hiding something. She could tell, especially when talking about how they met.

"I tried to stay detached from my dreams because I didn't know their origin, but…it's no wonder I couldn't help but get attached to her. I think, despite our many differences, we would have gotten along very well."

"I look forward to discovering those differences. Do you mind if I help you with the machine tomorrow?"

"I'd like that."

Despite missing his friend, Jake smiled quite enthusiastically.

* * *

Anakin slipped into the training room where he had seen the female Jedi go to meet with the Council. Apparently, he was supposed to do a little test training with her before his next mission; he might as well start now since he hadn't seen her leave yet. He found her sitting in the middle of the carpeted room, meditating. From here, he couldn't tell that a completely different person inhabited Sheena's body. She just looked…natural.

"We know each other, right?" she queried without opening her eyes as he approached. "We trained together? I mean…you trained with _her_."

"Yes," he replied solemnly, letting it sink in that he might never again talk to the Sheena he knew.

"This is amazing. I've never…" Her momentary smile faded and she opened her eyes. Anakin suddenly realized that he had almost never seen Sheena smile. "I'm sorry, but, with my dreams, it feels like I know you already. I was so frequently lost in my dreams before that it's perfectly easy for me to just…slip into the life here."

"Your dreams seem to be making this pretty easy for you. If you hadn't been so stunned by the transfer at first, we probably would have never noticed, if you so desired."

"_They_ called me a dreamer. They don't even seem to know what to call me. They went back and forth between referring to Sheena in third person and second person."

"No one knows what's going on. Not even the Council."

"Unfortunately, the only person who seemed to know anything was Count Dooku, and I have no desire to try asking him." For a moment, she just stared at her hands. "What was Sheena like? Did you know her before the first switch when we were little?"

"I didn't meet her until I was nine and I came to train with the Jedi. She's a year older than me. She never seemed to quite fit in here; I don't know what Yoda saw when she first arrived. I don't think he even knows why she's here. She's a good fighter and Force-user when she so chooses, but doesn't seem to like it very much. I think I've seen her use the Force a total of five times on the three missions she's been on away from Coruscant since her master died. She's always preferred diving into information and history. Once Dooku revealed himself, she was tasked with tracking his movements and finding any other possible Separatist or Sith strongholds.

"She's a very nice and caring person; she's even quite a talker when she's with her scientist buddies. I just don't think she ever really cared that there was an entire galaxy to explore. What makes you so sure that there even was a previous switch? You said you didn't remember anything from before age seven."

"Well, there's that flash of memory – I guess – that Dooku showed me. There was a girl with dark hair – me I think – and some people grabbed me and said that they were…eliminating a threat. And, just as you said your friend never belonged here, I never belonged there. My family, her family, never seemed really proud of me. They wanted me to love science and math, but the closest I ever went was language…and they didn't even like that. I didn't like science. I just find it so…weird that I don't actually remember anything from back then. Everyone remembers…something."

"Maybe the Sith somehow altered your memory. I've heard of it happening."

"Yeah." Suddenly, a huge yawn overtook the woman.

"You should get some sleep. We'll train tomorrow."

She laughed.

"My visions helped with a lot of things so far, but finding my room was not one of them."

"What is it like for you? You're in a different body and a different galaxy, apparently, but you look perfectly composed."

"Let me ask you: Why do you trust me?"

"Because the Council seems to trust you."

"Well, it may sound strange, but, because of my dreams, I feel like I know this place – like I know the Council and you and Obi-Wan. I certainly have not seen events in the right order most of the time, but I can't help but already feel…attached. Not many people have the chance to live their dreams, especially if they're as…extravagant as this. But here I am. I can manipulate things with my mind, walk down the grand hallways of the Temple, talk to aliens, fight with a lightsaber, and eat food that no one from Earth has ever imagined. It was certainly disorienting at first – I was scared! – but here I am."

"Do you know if Sheena – the other Sheena - is all right?"

"She was in good hands. Compared to the situation I was dropped into, she probably had it easy; however, after growing up here, she might have a little trouble explaining everything to my family."

"Do you miss your family?"

"Technically, if what I've seen is true, they weren't my family to begin with… Of course I miss them, but…I can't help but wonder why that machine was still there and waiting if they knew what it did and didn't want it to happen again. If they knew and left it there, maybe I was never their real daughter to them. I admit that I never really felt like I belonged, but they were still my family. Maybe they didn't want me."

"Are you angry?"

Anakin was genuinely curious on this point.

"If appearances are true and we grew up in the wrong bodies, then…I guess I can't blame them for wanting to set things right. They treated Kim like a lab rat and paid for it."

After a moment of silence, the woman realized that she had just purposefully referred to Sheena as Kim. Kim was _her_ name…at least it was before. Who was she now?

"Did you want me to help you find your room?"

"Please."

* * *

"My Lord Sidious."

"What news, my apprentice? Is the threat neutralized?"

"There was an unexpected difficulty, my Lord."

"What sort of difficulty? Did the transfer not take place?"

"It did indeed, my Lord, but, after the transfer, she was not nearly as helpless as we predicted. Before I could finish revealing her past to her, she disabled the guards and broke loose. I tried to stop her with Force lightning, but she deflected it. It was somehow…instinctive."

"Perhaps it was simply a physical reaction. Sheena had much potential in the Force, but she never utilized it."

"This was different. She was almost twice as strong as before the transfer."

"Does she know our plan? Are you aware of an allegiance she may have made?"

"No, Master, but…"

"Our plan may have changed, but it may be in our favor. Instead of simply nullifying the threat Sheena Lerann may have been, we might turn her to the Dark Side against the people she would have previously defended with her life. Instead of merely weakening her and making our rise to power simpler, she may in fact assist us. One way or another, Count Dooku, we have changed the future."

"What is your command, my Lord?"

"Leave Sheena Lerann to me, for now. I will be sure to meet our little friend very soon."


	6. A Galaxy's Guardian

A Galaxy's Guardian

It had been a long day. No. It had been an exhausting, mind-boggling, and strength-draining day.

After Jake had finally left the room, Sheena dropped onto the bed with Kim's journal against her chest. He was lying. There was something he wasn't telling her, but nothing she had heard that day indicated what. It did seem odd that Kathy was so desperate to switch the girls compared to her husband with the only reason being that they didn't get along very well. It seemed a little fickle. Such a big decision had to have been warranted by something more.

Sheena abandoned that train of thought and considered the other Kim. Did she know Sheena's life as much as Sheena knew hers? Had she blocked it out as Sheena had or embraced it? Could this book really hold some answers to what was happening here? What had this girl seen? Did she feel just as displaced and strangely comfortable? Finally, she opened her eyes and lifted the book up so that she could look at its blue hard cover. What did Kim know? Had she been having visions for just as long? Did she know her secrets?

Switching on the overhead lamp next to the bed, Sheena opened the well-worn cover to the first page where a few words were neatly written, having clearly been preceded by many other phrases that had been erased: _**A Galaxy's Guardian**_. Okay-ish. A few notes had been written into the margins such as 'fill in descriptions and filler events'. Sheena propped the luxurious pillows up a little more and turned to the next page, letting herself fall into a chronicle of her own past with a soundtrack of crickets coming through the open window.

* * *

"**Master Yoda, why did you stop the training early? Is there something wrong?"**

"**No, Sheena, but there is a matter of great importance to you that is about to be discussed."**

**The twelve-year-old looked down at the little green alien master as she walked with him towards the Jedi Council room.**

"**Did I do something wrong?"**

"**Did you?"**

"**Not that I know of."**

"**Then safe you are."**

**Eventually, the pair reached their destination. Only a few of the Council members were there, plus a Knight that Sheena had met on a few occasions around the Temple. He was a humanoid, about twenty-five or so years old, average height for an adult, with brown eyes, tan skin, and a bald head. He stood to the side with a serene gaze and his hands behind his back.**

"**Sheena, I believe you have met before," said Master Windu, dark and tall. "This is Sephjet Josall. He has asked to train you."**

**Sheena's eyes went wide as saucers.**

"**Train me? You mean as his Padawan?"**

"**If it's all right with you, of course," her new Master said, coming forward with a kind smile. "I've never trained my own Padawan before, so it will be a learning experience for both of us."**

"**I…yes. Thank you…Master Josall."**

"Well, that sounds frighteningly accurate," Sheena muttered, scanning the next ten pages or so before stopping again.

"**Master, why are we here? Dex's Diner?"**

"**Well, you're sixteen and, in a few years, you'll become a Jedi Knight. I think it's time I introduced you to someone who has gotten me out of quite a few quandaries in my life. Several Jedi come often for food, drink, advice, and a place to think. Dex may be a grubby fellow, but he has a good heart, a level head, and an impressive amount of knowledge."**

**Following Josall's lead, Sheena slipped into a booth. The metallic building was permeated with the smell of grease and filled with all manner of people. A few moments later, a large four-armed Besalisk emerged from the back kitchen and, upon seeing the Jedi, marched over to say hello.**

"**Well! One of my favorite customers! How are things in the Jedi world, Josall?"**

"**Well enough," replied the Knight, "though the rumored Sith Lord still eludes us."**

"**And who may this be?" Dexter inquired, eyeballing the female.**

"**This is my Padawan, Sheena Lerann. I figured it was about time I brought her here."**

"**Well, I'm honored. What can I get for ya?"**

"**Two of my usual, please."**

"**Are you sure, Master Jedi?"**

"**She needs an introduction at some point. It might as well be in a safe place with someone who can keep her in one piece."**

"**Alrighty."**

**Minutes later, Sheena was downing a pale drink that smelled potently of alcohol and seemed to give off a smoke or steam of sorts. It burned like fire on the way down. She gasped as she replaced the fist-sized glass on the table, eyes watering and throat tingling. Her head already felt a little fuzzy.**

"**What is that stuff?" she breathed.**

"**I never asked," Sephjet laughed. "I came in one day feeling a little stressed and asked for something to get my mind off things. This is what he handed me. I like to keep it a mystery."**

"**It's horrible…"**

"**Yeah. Frightening how I got used to it…"**

Sheena laughed at the memory, no longer really frightened by how this mystery girl seemed to get into her head. Josall had been a wonderful mentor. He could be stoic, deathly serious, sarcastic, comforting, comical, or whatever was called for in any given situation. Until… Suddenly desperate, Sheena flipped forward in the book until she came across a tear-stained page with smudged ink and shaky handwriting. Unlike the other entries, it was in first-person and had not been edited at all.

**Sta-Den Eekin: Dead. Joclad Danva: Dead. Sarrissa Jeng: Dead. Sar Labooda: Dead. Ichi-Tan Micoda, Khaat Qiyn, Que-Mars Redath-Gom, Fi-Ek Sirch, Nicanas Tassu, Lura Tranor, and Lyron: all Dead. **

**Padawan Lumas Etima, flirtatious and a little overconfident: Dead. Padawan Tan Yuster, a sweet, talented boy: Dead. **

**And Sephjet Josall, my Master…Dead.**

**All dead. So many Dead. I barely escaped the Battle of Geonosis with my life, but I will never forget the faces of all the horrified corpses strewn out across the sandy ground, the bodies riddled with blaster wounds. There were few screams; those droids had been too overwhelming and precise to miss their mark outside of the being lethal. I remember fighting for my life and nothing else. I remember seeing everyone around me fall and wondering why I wasn't with them; but instinct of survival was too much for me to give up. **

**I remember seeing the clones' ships and being dragged onto one of them by Master Windu, having been disabled by a stray shot redirected by a friendly lightsaber. I felt despair overpower me and the feeling that I could never fight another battle like that again. It's just…so hard to remember that much death. What makes things worse is waking up to find that it wasn't even real. I have fallen in love with this realm and these people and they don't even exist. If they did, I would never leave, no matter the cost. In a world like this, I can do good.**

Sheena blinked a few times at how consumed Kim seemed to be becoming. She remembered all those thoughts and emotions as her own. That battle had been the deciding factor in Sheena's complete disinterest in the field. After that battle, she always preferred the safety of the Temple. But reading this page made her remember the agony of looking around at all the dead Jedi and standing over the body of her dead Master. Somehow, in her dreams, Kim had experienced this agony with the same potency of actually standing in that arena. Sheena vaguely recalled a vision of Kim sitting on her bed, curled up in a ball and sobbing her heart out. The open book she had been holding looked exactly like the tear-stained page before her now.

Sheena got up from the bed and looked around for a writing utensil of some kind. She needed to try tying these visions to reality. Not seeing anything visible, she started digging around in the desk drawers, not looking where her hands were going. In the second drawer, she felt a sharp pain in her hand and yanked it back to discover a fairly deep cut. Instead of attending to it right away, however, Sheena pulled the drawer out further. Inside was an open wooden box with a set of long silver knives, one of which had been knocked out of place by her hand. Alongside the wooden box was another one made of cardboard filled with sharpened pencils.

She remembered these knives. She remembered using them in her dreams; however, until she actually saw them, she thought it was just fantasy. Nothing in this world matched what she had seen here. The Force didn't seem to exist. There was nothing exceptional in that sense. Plenty of brilliant minds and geographic beauty, but she hadn't seen anyone do anything that resembled the Force….

A crash outside caught her attention and, with nothing better to do, Sheena snuck downstairs and out into the night to investigate, carrying one of the silver daggers. She still wore the night attire she had discovered in the dresser - dark blue pants with white stars and a black camisole – but she didn't expect to find anything threatening.

Another crash led her down the neighborhood road a hundred or so feet to a small alleyway. Another crash. Wasn't anyone else hearing this?

Peeking down the alley, the woman noticed three figures standing over a fourth on the ground.

"All right, I'll ask you again. Where is she? Where is the other mutant?"

The victim coughed and spat some blood on the lead man's shoes. He was either very brave or very stupid.

"Like I'd tell you…I've never understood what you wanted with her. Your boss will just have to be disappointed. It's not like you have any power, officially, so why are you so obsessed?"

"We know that you haven't been telling us everything. We know you were working as a double agent…"

"Triple agent, technically. I was working for them while pretending to work for you while pretending to work for them. You've had so many rogue mutants slip right from under your nose…you should be ashamed. Of course, most of your losses were all thanks to me and my companions. Our boss may be on the other side of the country, but he doesn't like it when people mess with us."

"You _will _tell us where your friend is hiding."

Sheena gulped. Yeah, this was probably a bad idea, but oh well…

"I don't think he will," she interrupted loudly, throwing the knife expertly at one of the guards and getting quite a shock when it returned to her instantly upon hitting its mark.

Surprise didn't sink in, however, as the men, including the wounded one, all pulled out small guns and two started shooting. The guns had silencers, so they obviously didn't want to be heard. The apparent leader, however, yelled angrily, saying,

"Careful where you shoot! We want her alive."

The shooting slowed, but Sheena started panicking even as she threw the dagger again. At this point, normally, she would have used the Force to push them away, but it wasn't there. It somehow didn't exist in this place. Suddenly, the comfort she had felt before completely left her. She must have noticed at some point that Kim never used the Force, but she never fathomed that it didn't exist somewhere in the universe. It didn't sink in until that moment.

Sheena turned to run finally, only to feel a sharp stabbing pain in her shoulder. She reached around and retrieved a small dart. Already she felt drowsy, but she was somehow able to push past it and keep running. She was almost to the mouth of the alley where these men would hopefully halt the chase for fear of being seen. Another dart hit her in the back and her steps finally slowed. Only a few more feet. Why did this alley seem so long?

Eyes sinking shut, Sheena fell to her knees almost within arm's reach of the main street, her hope of escape crushed. Before darkness took her, however, someone else stepped into the alley.

* * *

"Two tranquilizer darts shouldn't have knocked her out that fast. She knows how to power past that stuff. She should have been able to easily make it out, if not incapacitate all three of those lugnuts."

"Rick, she's not exactly herself."

"I don't care if she's had a mental breakdown, Jake!"

"It's a little more complicated than that. Remember when she was first found and there was something…off about the readings we took? It wasn't just genetics that made her special."

"Yeah, but we didn't care."

"I think we should start caring now. Her personalities had been switched, giving her those abilities, and…well, she was switched again. I don't know how much of her abilities are left."

"Well, a normal human would have dropped after the first tranq, so she's not all gone. They knew who she was. They were on to us. Those tranquilizers had almost twice the dosage it would take to knock out a normal human."

"And here I thought we were in the clear at least for a few years. Now, hold still and let me disinfect this leg."

"Do you seriously carry that medical bag with you everywhere?"

"Well, with the record you and Kim have, I've learned you can't be too careful."

With a groan, Sheena opened her eyes to find that she had been dragged back into the alley and propped up against a trash bin. Her head felt like it had been hit with a twenty-ton brick and every fiber of her being told her to go back to sleep. She propped herself up on her elbows to face Jake and 'Rick', a man of average height in his late twenties or early thirties with sticky-uppie brown, short hair, dark eyes, and a rather strong physique.

"You didn't tell me everything about Kim, did you?" she muttered. "I had visions about Kim in her everyday life – everything from writing notes for her book during class to fighting men with extraordinary abilities on both sides. What I didn't realize was that none of this involved the Force…about which I have realized you know nothing. I saw Kim bouncing off of walls and defeating enemies before they could fight back without even getting a scratch herself. How? Tell me."

"Jake," said Rick with a confused gaze, "I think it's time you told me _exactly _what happened to Kim and why Kim is referring to Kim in third person."

"I already told you her personalities were switched," the other man growled.

"Like…a multiple personality disorder?"

"No…like the Kim we knew wasn't actually Kim but other person growing up in Kim's body. Now, the Kim we knew, whose name is actually Sheena, is back in her own time and place, and the original Kim who grew up as Sheena is back in her own body."

There was a short pause; Rick looked like he was concentrating very hard.

"Okay, that makes absolutely no sense but I'm not going to ask any more. We're stuck with the new Kim now, right? Then we'll just work with what we've got. Kim – Sheena – what are we supposed to call you? Never mind. Let's just call you Kim to ease up on confusion for us. _Kim_. What I'm about to tell may not be that important compared to whatever world you grew up in, but here, it's a question of life or death. You (I think), Jake, and I are mutants of the human race. We were born with abilities that normal humans don't have…some call it evolution, others say it's simply something that has always been there and is just coming into the open more now; I don't get into that aspect of it. Regardless of the reasoning, we're outcasts in the world…but we also have mutant enemies who want to destroy the human race. These other mutants were defeated on multiple occasions, but they always come back, so we need to become stronger in order to protect the human race from extinction. The three of us took it upon ourselves a few years ago to protect the mutants in this area and eventually join other mutants. Tonight is evidence that we're starting to get noticed by the wrong people…Magneto's old gang of followers, if I'm not mistaken. You were hoping to finish your education before moving up in the world, but…we have some decisions to make."

"Great… First," the woman responded with a fake smile, "tell me about Kim – about me."

The men exchanged a thoughtful look before Jake took the lead.

"Well, you know at least some about your life from the visions you apparently had, so…I suppose I'll give you a little background first. Your parents are, in a word, brilliant. When you were little, you apparently were very interested in their fields. At age six, you were already trying to teach yourself some Algebra and reading Jane Austen. Then, at seven, all that stopped. You found math boring and most of the books you read were science fiction to at least some extent. Your parents went from being idols to nuisances."

"Sounds like I wasn't exactly the best of my class," Sheena grumbled.

"Just because you didn't excel in what your parents thought you would doesn't mean you weren't special in your own way. You may have not been the perfect intellectual, but you were a great writer and dancer; you taught yourself Hebrew, Russian, and German by the eighth grade; and you took five years of self-defense-related classes. Ever since you got into crime shows, you wanted to be in the FBI, CIA, any of those. When you were fourteen, you decided that you would keep pursuing languages and major in Linguistics when you got to college; then, you would join the Army or another military branch for a couple of years before trying to get into the CIA training program. Then, you got into our little gang. You didn't talk to either of your parents about your plans past college."

Sheena shrugged.

"Okay. So I was secretive, had a good ear, and was a tough kid. What's with the armed men tonight?"

"Well…there's another reason Kim was…special since your switch – something that has made quite a few people rather interested in her. She started gaining some abilities. She may not have been a genius outside of languages, but, when she thought about it, she was a lot tougher, stronger, faster, more flexible, and better at healing than any normal human, and her senses were much more refined. At first, we thought she was a mutant – genetically a little different than a human…enough to do what she could do; however, there's nothing about her DNA that indicates that she is a mutant. She just happens to have these abilities."

"When you say 'faster' and 'stronger' and all…"

"I noticed that you had your hand wrapped up; I assume you cut it. Take a look at it now." Sheena looked at her now unwrapped hand, the one she had sliced open on the knives in the drawer. It was completely healed – not even a scar. "If you had known about that, you probably could have gotten away on your own, tranquilizers or no."

"Where I grew up, there is something called the Force. Through it, certain gifted people can do extraordinary things, like what Kim can do and much more. Whenever I saw her doing anything extraordinary, I always thought she was Force sensitive, but I see now that the Force just…doesn't exist here. How is this all possible?"

"Maybe in the first switch, she brought some of the Force with her? I don't know. One way or another, it made a lot of people interested in her, good and bad. We can help you."

"You keep saying 'we'."

"There are quite a few mutants…more than people think. We've slowly been able to get it to a point in this country where we're respected and not hunted. But we have to be prepared to defend ourselves because freedom can be taken away in the blink of an eye or so slowly that you don't notice it until it's gone. Sometimes, freedom isn't what it appears to be; sometimes, you're more free without laws to defend and expose you."

That still didn't answer everything.

"Why are you acting like I'm so important?"

"You were training. You had heard of a group of elite mutant protectors on the east coast and…you wanted to join them."

"How are you connected with them?"

"Yeah, Jake," Rick piped up with a mocking tone, "how are you connected with them?"

The other man sighed.

"That's a long story for another time. You both need rest."

Do review!


	7. Dream Diary

My apologies for the little delay. I'm finally recovering from a case of writer's block with my Stargate story, so I'm doing a bit of multi-tasking. Thank you to everyone who is following _Return to the Unknown_. This is my first real cross-over, so reviews would be much appreciated.

Dream Diary

Kim just stared at the mirror, only half aware that the steam from her already-running shower was fogging it up. It hadn't even occurred to her until this moment to look at herself. The woman before her wasn't the one she had seen in the mirror for over ten years. This was the woman whose eyes through which she had seen almost every night in her dreams. She remembered feeling this woman's pain and joy, but _being _Sheena wasn't something she had even hoped for in the wildest of her dreams. Her friends always said she was just too attached to her book, dreams, and fantasies, but…she knew this face almost as well as her own.

She was about 5'5'' with ivory skin, a well-formed, petite figure, and a fine jawline. Her eyes were a midnight blue and her straight black hair reached her chin in a choppy style with the front would-be bangs swept to the side and braided back.

What was odd was that Sheena wasn't nearly as fit or tired-looking as in her last dream when the soldiers in white had attacked. Had it happened long ago or…did she dare even think it? Had it not happened yet? According the Jedi, Sheena was a researcher – a scientist prone to spending her days more likely pursuing old stories and experiments than actually going out on missions. The most exercise her pin-thin arms had seen recently was probably helping to weed the Temple gardens.

Aside from fitness, though, there was something else off about this picture. Her most recent vision had portrayed Sheena as a strong leader with a passionate fire in her eyes. As she stared blankly into the mirror, her full lips in the detached frown she had seen many times, Kim saw that something was missing in this woman's demeanor. Of course, at the moment, she was tired from a long, stressful, and confusing day, so she wasn't exactly feeling like…herself. Of course! That's what was missing. If it was true that Kim and Sheena had been switched to the wrong bodies all those years ago, then what was missing was… With a calming breath, Kim thought of all of her past dreamed up and hoped for passions and adventures – of hiking the breathtaking paths on the High Sierras, writing about Sheena's training, learning focus and discipline in her ballet classes, and her efforts to prepare for the military and CIA, maybe even working with the mutant leaders in defense of the innocent – all that exhaustingly brilliant work that she considered fun.

Kim opened her eyes. Past the exhaustion, she now saw the familiar gleam she always saw in the mirror back on Earth. Until now, she hadn't even seen it as distinguishing. There was something wise, tough, challenging, even cocky about that look. This was the true Sheena Lerann.

Kim remembered her shower as the steam completely covered the mirror.

* * *

So this was Sheena's journal. Kim ran her hands over the rough brown leather book of which she had caught several glimpses. Everything about her surroundings felt exceptionally real at this point; she felt aware of everything – the simple but soft grey sheets below her, the vague sound of the Coruscant traffic in the air below, the gentle warmth of the pale blue pajamas and white robe wrapped around her foreign frame.

The bedroom was quite bare aside from the desk weighted down with two piles of folders and a flat computer – a datapad she had heard it called. There were no pictures on the grey walls, artworks, or decorations of any kind except for a simple alien plant on the windowsill with twisted limbs and bluish-grey leaves…which appeared to be dying. The closet was half full of appealing but modest clothes, all generally within the typical attire of the Jedi and…bland and light. It wasn't that Kim was a huge fan of fashion or shopping, but she liked at least some variety. On the other hand, the Jedi clothes were pretty cozy.

Finally, she opened the journal a few pages after the beginning. What did this woman know about her life?

"**Kim?"**

"**Hm?" the seven-year-old responded absentmindedly. **

"**Did you hear what I asked?"**

**The girl, though sitting tall in her chair, chewed on her lip nervously. She didn't get a good feeling being around this 'psychologist'…or even the man and woman who were apparently her parents.**

"**No, ma'am."**

"**Do you…know who these people are?"**

"**I…guess they're my parents."**

"**You guess?" The adults exchanged a worried look. "Kim, you said you don't remember anything from before last week. Um…do you know where you're from, where you were born?"**

**The girl, without thinking, spat out,**

"**Corellia."**

**The woman looked confused.**

"**Wait. Where?"**

"**Corellia?"**

"**Honey," Kim's mother chided, kneeling in front of the child, "there's no such place. Corellia doesn't exist."**

"**But…I thought…" The girl felt tears threaten to come to her eyes. She felt lost; her memory was shredded. Corellia was one thing that she thought she could count on to be real.**

* * *

"**Miss Weaver, hiding behind your classmate will do you no good. I'd think that students would learn that by now. Can you please tell me the square root of 147? No paper, please."**

**Kim sat in her chair in the back of the large classroom with her mouth slightly ajar.**

"**C…could you ask the question again, please…Ma'am?"**

"**What. Is. The square root of 147? This is the eighth grade, Miss Weaver, not Kindergarten."**

**Kim sat in silence with the whole room of her 'friends' staring at her. She twisted her long braided hair around her finger nervously. Mrs. Westlake, the math teacher, was a personal friend of her mother, but Kim had never done well in her classes. Math was never her strong suit. Neither her mother nor Mrs. Westlake was impressed. A girl in the front of the class shot her hand up. Mrs. Westlake went over to her, asked her to write the answer down, and announced that it was correct; but then, she returned to Kim.**

"**We don't have all day, Miss Weaver."**

**Kim ground her teeth. She was pretty good about humility, but this was getting ridiculous.**

"**I don't know, Mrs. Westlake. And, frankly, I don't care."**

**The woman's jaw tensed and her thin lips pressed together.**

**Loudly, she proclaimed,**

"**The answer is 12.124. Mathematics, my young friends, is not just a class to bore you during your school years. It is a field worthy of recognition and learning."**

**Kim tuned the teacher out after that and wrote in her journal for the rest of class.**

* * *

"**Arabesque. Very good. Margaret, keep your leg straight. And down. ****Plié****. And up. And finish. Very nice, ladies. I'll see you on Thursday."**

**Kim breathed in satisfaction, releasing the bun in her hair as she removed her ballet shoes. It was going to be a long night.**

"**Kim?"**

"**Yes?" the sixteen-year-old replied, standing to face the blonde dance instructor. Martha Purdy was a very kind and easy-going woman…as long as you didn't slack in her classes.**

"**Kim, I've been wanting to talk to you for a little while. You are one of my most hard-working, dedicated students. You've only missed one class…"**

"**When my parents made me go to that science convention," Kim interrupted.**

"**Yes… I've noticed that you always rush off right after class, without fail. Is everything all right at home? Are your parents all right with you taking lessons here?"**

"**Yeah. They encourage it even. I have an evening job as a janitor at the police department down the street. I'm going to use the money to buy a car in a couple years. The streets between here and my house aren't exactly perfect for an evening walk alone."**

"**Oh. Well, if you ever need a ride home or anything, just let me know. I don't need you getting hurt out there."**

"**Thank you, but I can take care of myself pretty well."**

* * *

"**Woah. Kim! Easy! Timeout! You want to disarm him, not kill him."**

**Kim looked up quizzically at her trainer from her position of pinning the muscular man below her in a strangle hold. She had been under his guidance ever since she had changed her mind about buying a car and instead saved for college. After making her decision a year ago, she had walked into a local gym and found Savio coaching a couple of people in self-defense. He did more than that, though, she had discovered. He had been in the marines and used to train semi-professional boxers and wrestlers; now, he was close to a real retirement and this was more of a hobby than anything else. Unlike ballet, she refrained from telling her parents about this particular pastime. **

"**I wasn't going to kill him. I barely even hurt him. Isn't that right, Joe?"**

**Joe, a nighttime bouncer, coughed while nodding.**

"**Yeah, kid, I'm fine. I just didn't expect you to come around so fast."**

"**Sorry. I've always underestimated my own strength."**

"**You're tough, but you don't look like you have enough size to take down someone even a little bigger than you; yet you downed me like I was a kid. What's your secret?"**

"**Why do you even take this class, Kim?" added Savio. "You're perfectly capable of defending yourself." Kim didn't answer. "Listen, if you plan on killing someone with these skills, please leave me out of it."**

**Kim scoffed.**

"**What makes you think I would want to kill someone?"**

"**You fight very logically, but there always seems to be some deep anger."**

"**You know, being insightful doesn't suit you, Savio. And, honestly, the closest thing I have to pent-up anger is just typical teenage rebellion."**

"**Riiiiight."**

* * *

**It had taken three tranquilizer darts to finally get her to stop and sit down, though she still remained conscious. Even though she summoned up all her will-power to get up and run again, she just ended up rolling onto her side on the concrete with a groan. She had used all of her knives trying to get these guys off her tail. She should have listened to Jake rather than try to ferret out the enemy mutants alone. At least they would have to start all over to find a new hideout now… **

"**Well, well… Looks like Dr. Zimmerman's friend is just like Griffin said: tough and pretty. Should we shoot her one more time to knock her out?"**

"**Are you daft?! Two of those were technically the maximum human dose and we shot her with three. One more could kill her. Griffin wanted her alive."**

"**She killed Dike and Parson. I'm starting to think we might be fighting on the wrong side."**

"**Please. Griffin only sent those two with us 'cause they were starting to get cold feet. They were scientists, not soldiers like us. If you start talking like that, Griffin might send you on a suicide mission too."**

"**Reason enough for me…"**

**The brown-haired one knelt down with his tranq gun in front of Kim, who was just focusing on fighting her jelly-like arms. The California sun was starting to feel like an oven on the nineteen-year-old's black leather clothes.**

"**So, you're Dr. Zimmerman's little friend," he noted with a smile as he prepared an empty syringe. "Let's get this done and get you into the car." He quickly drew some blood, covered the syringe, and replaced it in his coat pocket. "That's a good girl. No more causing trouble."**

"**Hey!" two male voices called sharply. A gunshot resounded and Kim's assailant cautiously stood and backed away, followed by his partner.**

"**Dr. Zimmerman. And who's your new friend?"**

"**Just the new kid in town," the stranger chirped back.**

"**I don't want to make a bad impression then. I was simply defending myself from this young lady here."**

"**Save it."**

**Kim wanted to warn the two men behind her that the bad guy was reaching for a real gun behind his belt, but she was doing good to just not collapse. Apparently, however, the warning was not needed. Just as her attackers pulled their guns, three more shots were fired and they both were down with bullets in their chests.**

"**Jake?" she asked weakly when her friend knelt in front of her. The strange savior was in the background with a pistol comfortably held at ready. As he nudged on the dead men with his toe, he nodded to Jake. He was, in a word, a hunk. "Who are you?"**

"**The name's Rick O'Neill."**

"**Nice to meet you. And thanks. You're bleeding, by the way." **

**Rick glanced at the graze in his buff arm and shrugged off Jake, who insisted on at least wiping the blood away to see the damage. When he did so, the wound had already stopped bleeding.**

"**I heard the scuffle and met up with the doc here to follow the noise. I assume you know each other."**

"**Yeah," Jake replied, baffled. "You're healing at an amazing rate. You must be…"**

"**A mutant?" Rick finished. "Yeah, not that it's done me much good. I just got kicked out of the Army for it…heard a branch of the X-Men folks was out here."**

"**You came to the right place. I've been recruiting mutants for education and training for a little while. It's a bit unofficial; the kids I try to get sent to Xavier's school and the adults I try to help make connections with others like them. I'm still working on making a base and gaining trust."**

"**It seems you and your friend are running into a few problems."**

"**That's a bit of a story. There's a group that's somehow secretly connected to the government and they don't like what we're trying to achieve. On top of that, one of their leaders apparently has a vendetta against me and they're determined to find Kim's secret."**

"**What secret?"**

**Kim grinned as the drugs – the drugs that should have nearly sent a normal human into a coma - finally lost a little edge for a moment, saying,**

"**I'm not really a mutant."**

That must have been confusing for Sheena to see, depending on how much she had already seen concerning the mutants. All that special ability must have just seemed like the Force rather than a physical mutation. Kim considered this as she drifted into a dreamless sleep.


	8. Discovery of Self

Discovery of Self

_Beep._

Kim turned onto her stomach and put her pillow over her head. Why was she so tired? She was used to waking up at around dawn and going for runs. Her body was supposed to be used to this.

_Beep._

She didn't remember setting an alarm. Wait. Where was she?

_Beeeeeeeeeeeep._

Kim flipped out of bed and landed on the floor with a dull thud; a quick look around the room proved one thing: yesterday was not all just a crazy, horrible, fantastic dream.

The source of the irritating noise turned out to be a small black device – a communicator. Grabbing it from the nightstand, she pushed the button to respond groggily,

"Yes?"

"_Rise and shine, sleepy-head. Ready to do some real sparring?"_

"Sure, but I just woke up," Kim replied to Anakin's cheerful voice.

"_I'll be at your room in an hour. Be ready to have some fun."_

"Right," the girl muttered, tossing the com on the bed and heading for the refresher room. What was wrong with her? Some sort of jet lag?

As she ran her fingers through her choppy hair in the shower, however, she remembered that she was in a body whose last tenant hadn't apparently been the most active of people. She would have to probably start from scratch. Back on Earth, she could run five miles and do numerous pushups and other exercises before actually feeling exhausted; here, she probably would be able to do two pushups if she was lucky. No time like the present. She had forty-five minutes before Anakin would show up…perfect time for a short run.

* * *

Chancellor Palpatine managed a perfect outward calm as Jedi Master Windu appeared as a hologram on his desk. Inside, he was jittery with anticipation.

"Master Windu."

"Chancellor," the Jedi responded, his lips twitching slightly with impatience. "You had something you wanted to discuss?"

"Yes," Palpatine confirmed, leaning forward slightly. "I was wondering if I could have an audience with your new arrival."

Windu looked quite baffled.

"I'm not sure which new arrival you are referring to."

"Oh. Well, was there not an incident with Jedi Knight Sheena Lerann? Something with her personality being switched I believe. I find the entire scenario quite fascinating."

"I was not aware that the anyone outside the Temple knew about it. Sheena Lerann only returned yesterday evening."

"Oh, I keep an ear open for interesting stories. Please do let me know as soon as possible when I can meet with her."

"I'll see what I can do."

As Windu's figure faded from sight, Palpatine leaned back in his seat with a smile. He looked forward to seeing how his plot had reduced Sheena Lerann from a threat to simply an insect beneath his boot when he finally ruled the galaxy. He had foreseen her cowering beneath him, confused and scared out of her wits as he crushed the life from her. This was no longer her world.

Or so he thought.

* * *

"Since we're just practicing, we'll use sticks instead of lightsabers. We don't how good your reflexes are yet."

"Okay. I know we sparred at least a few times, but did we do it often?"

"Often enough."

Kim left it at that and threw a few practice swings at the air while Anakin positioned himself a ways off on the other side of the room. She knew that he and Sheena hadn't exactly been best of buddies, especially since their personalities clashed so much. But _Kim_ liked Anakin. He had an adventurous, righteous spirit. She hoped, now that _she _was Sheena, to tell him how good a person he was.

Anakin was the one to attack first, clearing five feet in a giant leap towards Kim, who instantly put up a defensive tactic with her stick. She remembered that Sheena used a defensive style called Form III and her body seemed to react that way, so she used it. After a few moments, however, Anakin already had 'cut' her three times in the chest and leg.

"Let it be more natural," the Jedi advised, clearly a little annoyed at how lacking her skills were. It was frustrating since, back on Earth, she had the strength and confidence to take a single man out using even just her bare hands with no problem. She just wasn't used to this body and place.

More natural. Okay. Kim thought of her self-defense class and her outings with Jake and Rick. Then she remembered her last dream, when the clones were attacking her and her companion on that ship. That brief moment of desperate combat had made her feel more alive than any of the other fighting visions. So, she let that take over.

"Natural. Right," she grumbled, flipping a piece of her black hair out of her eyes and twirling the stick in her hand.

She closed her eyes for a second, remembering what she had done only in the past day: using the Force. _"Let the Force flow through you, you must," _she remembered someone saying. So she did. She closed her eyes. For the first time, she let the person from that last dream become her. This time, she was ready…hopefully.

* * *

A moment after Anakin had given the strange woman his bit of advice – just to let her movements be more natural – he noticed a change in her stance. Though the practice staff had seemed rather awkward previously, she now appeared far more relaxed. He recalled Sheena using the defensive Form III, or Sorensu, and that had been what she tried a few seconds previously. Now, as she opened her eyes, she stared blankly at Anakin and brought her blade vertically in front of her face before swinging it down: the Makashi salute and challenge.

Anakin still attacked first, but, this time, Sheena wasn't so easy to take down. Her hand was delicately yet securely wrapped around the 'hilt' of the stick and her knees bent slightly to make her stance more grounded. She stepped to the side to avoid the greater weight of her opponent's Form V attack, countering it by knocking Anakin's stick to the side and attempting to disarm him; however, he kept his grip, backed off, and attacked again with a little more force with an overhand power blow. Sheena retained a calm that disturbingly reminded Anakin of his duel with Count Dooku on Geonosis and quickly retreated. This was followed by another, more aggressive flourish with her wooden blade that ended in a quick strike that touched Anakin's thigh. She smirked slightly in satisfaction.

Anakin took the advantage and used brute force to knock her down and end the duel with his practice weapon at her throat.

"Better…considering that you fight like this is the first time you've had a weapon in your hand."

Her eyes looked as if they were on fire for a moment, but she accepted his offered hand.

"Not bad," Mace Windu suddenly said from the doorway as he came into view. "Not bad. You have potential, Sheena…but you are not ready to be considered a Jedi Knight as is."

Sheena stared at the floor, leaning on the practice staff with both hands in front of her.

"Give me five months," she muttered. "In five months, I will be one of the best Knights you could ask for."

Master Windu considered her request for a moment.

"We are in the middle of a war and the Order needs whatever manpower it can get. Padawans are being given responsibilities that they shouldn't have for another five _years_. We don't have time to make perfect warriors. You have three months."

* * *

"So. This is the internet."

"Yep," Jake responded. "You can find pretty much any quick information on here…but not all of it is true."

Sheena typed in 'all known galaxies' and sighed when one of the first results noted more than 34,000 discovered galaxies, none of which had actually been explored. She and her two apparent friends had moved their party into the Weavers' house since both adults had gone to a movie.

"Crude but effective. This may take a while. Is there any way to narrow the search?"

"How?" Rick grumbled. "By typing in: Filled with strange creatures, magicians, and spaceships. Doesn't this galaxy of yours have a name?"

"We just call it 'the galaxy'. We know there are other galaxies out there, but there haven't been too many attempts to explore them…well, except for contacting two satellite galaxies and sending a mission to explore one more."

"Seriously?! You say that they have ships that can reach lightspeed _at least_, but they haven't bothered to do much exploring outside of that? We just have a couple of hunky-dory space probes just now getting close to the edge of our galaxy after decades…but at least we're trying. You have the tech to visit dozens of galaxies."

Sheena coolly looked away from the computer at the man sitting on her bed having his leg finally cleaned by the medical student.

"Firstly, you are thousands of years behind them in technology. Secondly, we may not be making a priority of going outside our galaxy, but we do have a flourishing civilization made up of 180 billion star systems with about 100 quadrillion sentient beings. Thirdly, the environment around the galaxy makes it incredibly difficult to reach the space outside it. We have plenty of problems to deal with inside our own galaxy, so we see no reason to bother stretching beyond our limits."

"Yeah, but…" Rick flinched as Jake 'accidentally' bumped his med kit against his left side. "Yow! Whajya do that for?!"

"You were favoring that side."

"And you decided to hit it just to make sure?!"

"I think you should go to the hospital. You probably have bruised ribs, if not worse. Besides, I can only do so much with your wounded leg with just my first aid kit."

"You're a doctor. I'm sure you'll manage. I'll be fine."

"Wait," Sheena suddenly interrupted, turning away from the computer. "You're a doctor? I thought you were just a student."

"That wasn't in your visions? Of all things…"

"No. Yes. I kind of remember having a dream of you being mentioned as a doctor, but I also remember you being a student, so it's a bit mixed up. Tell me what is going on…please." Sheena tried to remain calm and cool, but these boys were trying her patience. She thought they trusted her by now enough to know she wasn't their enemy. Her visions hadn't been very helpful in explaining things, either. "You're Kim's best friend, Jake. What are you hiding from me?"

"Okay. I'll start," Rick growled when Jake ignored the question and turned his attention to gaging the damage of his ribs. "I'm not just some tough guy off the streets. I was an Army man for a while. I reached Second Lieutenant and finally got into the Special Forces (what Kim was wanting to do)…even got a snazzy tattoo to boot. Unfortunately, the army isn't exactly welcoming yet when it comes to mutants after all the havoc they've caused. I got an honorable discharge at age 28. I moved back here, where I ran into you, Jake, and the other mutants in line with the X-men. We've been working together to help them as much as possible. I even played double agent for them by getting myself recruited with the bad guys. They found me out before I could get too deep, though. Since you aren't technically a mutant on the genetic level, we were thinking that you could get into Special Forces or something and, by the time they saw you for who you really are, you would already have their respect. You wouldn't get kicked out like I did."

"But isn't it more the idea that mutants have caused so much conflict that keeps them from openly accepting you?" added the girl. "They should know that a few individuals don't speak for an entire community."

"But they can't take the risk for now. They leave the X-men to their own business and let them help, but an unknown mutant within their ranks might break up their trust and unity, which…I force myself to understand."

"And you, Jake? _Doctor_?" Sheena was sure to add a little mockery to her tone. Here and from her dreams, from what she had seen, she thought she could trust Jake of all people. He had seemed so nerdy and helpful and understanding – the kind of friend she would never want to let go – but had he lied to her?

"My…ability…is simply to be exceptionally brilliant."

"And he knows it," Rick growled under his breath, earning another smack in the ribs from Jake.

"I managed to become a doctor by age sixteen, despite a lot of people doubting my abilities. A year after I became an official MD, I treated a member of the X-Men who saw me for what I was and pulled me into their circle. I've been working with them to help the mutants on the West coast and get any kids with really special abilities into their School. There's talk of setting up another school in…Colorado, I think…and, eventually, a third one closer to here. Kim and I were friends since high school, like I said, but I wasn't a student there…just visiting for old time's sake. She mistook me for a student and, by that time, I already guessed she was one of us and that she was having difficulties with her abilities. The X-Men suggested that I keep everything a secret for a while, but I told her soon enough about us.

"She agreed to keep my cover of just being a med student at the university while we trained and investigated rogue mutant activity. She's a tough girl. If where you grew up is anything like what you say, then Earth should be a cake-walk. I think you'll do just fine. Let me show you something." He opened the closet and started running his hand across the back. "Things like the Force don't exist here, Kim. What we have is all on us and whatever angels might be looking out for us." Finally, his fingers touched a hidden catch and the back panel slid away to reveal a small alcove filled with weapons (mostly daggers), a lock-picking set, a few technological gizmos, and a set of black clothes, including a leather jacket and pants. "You've never come up with a good code name, so we just call you 'Jane Doe'."

"Anonymous," Kim whispered, remembering flashes of fights she…Kim had in this costume. "I'm going to school for linguistics, correct? Isn't that for the CIA or something?"

"Technically yes, but the X-Men have already extended a potential job offer for when you graduate. Kim was trying to decide whether she wanted to go straight to them or try a few years in the military first."

"There were two things I liked least of all: government officials (always poking into scientists' business) and the mutant conflict. I refused to let you even look into the former, so you went to school and got yourself involved with the mutants before I could say a word," said Mrs. Weaver, appearing through the doorway. "These people came along when your…abilities got out of control and helped you hone them, so I eventually changed my mind. But you never belonged even after the mutants found you. Your father never found out about your abilities and that's why he didn't see as much of a point to getting the real you back. I thought, if we did the switch again, the abilities would go away. Have they?"

"We don't know yet."

"Wait," snapped Sheena. "What do you mean by 'out of control'?"

"Near the end of high school, you...beat up a bully."

"What's wrong with that?"

"You broke three of his ribs, gave him a black eye and a concussion, and threw him _through a window_. He was lucky to recover at all, from what I heard. And that was just the beginning. You were in track, ballet, and self-defense. You started taking advantage of your abilities without caring what would happen. You beat every track record at the high school and then beat your own records twice in the span of three track meets. You shocked your ballet teacher with your sudden 'progress', since you had always held back your incredibly exceptional talent. And your self-defense…well, you almost put your teacher in the hospital, but, luckily, he's a mutant with very fast healing."

"So, the real reason you wanted to switch me back was because Sheena, the Kim you knew, was too much to handle."

Mrs. Weaver's lips thinned into a straight line, but she remained calm.

"Not at all. She wasn't ever truly happy here. Regardless, you're here now, but the mutant folks are still looking to you to help them. I can't believe I'm saying this, but…having your abilities and lacking the genetic giveaway would greatly help these X-Men in sneaking around dangerous rogue groups without being targeted for indoctrination. You could be their new undercover agent. You have choices to make here, Kim, but you have some very important options."

Hearing her mother call her 'Kim' struck a chord for the young woman. Most of her life until now had been one big mix-up that should have never happened and had left her feeling out of place in the world of Jedi. Now, though, she had a chance to start over, maybe learn from her mistakes in the past, and have a real life.

* * *

After a little more training under Windu's supervision, Anakin had left to prepare for his next mission with Obi-Wan, leaving the Master and the newbie alone.

"I'm sorry if I seemed flustered earlier, Master," Kim humbly said as she replaced her training staff and retrieved her belt with her lightsaber. "I just... In some of my visions of this place, I saw myself as an expert swordsman. I could _feel _and _anticipate _every move; but I guess it's different as a reality. Maybe my wishful thinking was coming into play when I saw that. Sheena isn't a fighter – at least not yet – so I don't know where those things came from."

"For some things, you have to wait to find an answer. Just be patient and focus on training and finding your place here. You seem to have learned a lot from these visions."

"That's just the thing. I think I know where I'm supposed to be; I just don't know how to get there." There was a slight pause during which Kim noticed Windu's subtle pacing. "Master, I have a feeling that my training was not the original reason for this visit."

He sighed.

"No. Sheena, have you contacted anyone related to Chancellor Palpatine?"

"Who?" the girl asked before the peculiar name sank in. "Oh, the chancellor! No. _I've _never talked to him. Why?"

"He asked to meet with you. Apparently, he finds this whole body-switching scenario…interesting."

"That's a bit odd, isn't it?"

"The chancellor has always fought for the Jedi and the Republic, but I wouldn't go so far as to trust him. I would wait a little while before meeting with him. Wait until you have your feet a little more rooted."

"All right. Where do I start?"

"I would suggest studying the Jedi Code, history, and combat. Familiarize yourself with the Force, meditate, and…rediscover yourself. Ask others about your life and go to the Jedi Archives, where you did most of your work."

"Master? Why…why do you talk as if I'm Sheena? You know I'm not the same person."

Mace shrugged.

"If Master Yoda is correct, then you are the real Sheena. For all we know, you could be an unforeseen advantage for the Jedi…or you could bring about the destruction of the Republic. Until we know more, all we can do is see that you stay on the right path."

Kim purposefully did not ask for directions when she left the training room for the Jedi archives. She just let her feet take her.

* * *

"Sheena! You're back! I feared the worst. People kept saying that you had been captured and hurt. But…"

Kim's feet had taken her to the Jedi archives, which looked more like a gigantic computer room. In a little alcove to the side was a large table computer with planets and data being projected off of it. Studying the data was a young blue female alien Jedi…Twi'leks she believed was the species. The name Matri'a came to mind. Matri'a was the one Sheena did most of her research with, though the young Twi'lek was on missions more frequently than not.

"Matri'a," Kim explained, "I did get captured and…well, I'm not exactly the same person you knew."

"I was just about to say that one of the others finally told me what happened. Is the other Sheena all right do you think?"

The other Sheena. Kim had been hearing that a lot during the past day or so. When one considered the circumstances, though, Kim was actually Sheena and Sheena was actually Kim. The people they had grown up with connected the face with the name and were understandably confused as to how to address her now. She was slowly realizing that her whole life since early childhood had been a lie – not necessarily a deliberate one, but a lie nonetheless – created by people who didn't understand why a young child suddenly forgot who she was and experienced a complete personality switch.

"Matri'a, you can just call her Kim; that's her real name. You're used to calling me Sheena and…I guess that is my real name."

"All right, then. Do you know much about the research we were doing?"

"Some, but not all. I had many dreams about our research, but the switch left some things jumbled. You two were in charge of a project to predict our enemies' path and moves by patching together history, tactical information, and various forms of intel. We were also trying to figure out who the real leader is behind all this conflict…if it really is mostly Dooku or someone else."

"You got it about right."

"The thing is, _I'm _not very good at doing research and being cooped up in a library for hours on end for reasons other than simple perusal."

"Master Yoda already explained to me what…happened to you. He said you would be training to be more of a…a…"

"'A Jedi rather than a researcher' is what you're trying to say."

"No! You can be a scientist and a Jedi. She – Kim – always seemed…I don't know…out of place, I guess. She hid away in the archives and bucked at every mission the Council said required her knowledge after the battle on Geonosis. She's a kind woman, but work always came first…her research, that is. Sometimes, I think she did it just to get away from the real war. Don't get me wrong – her work did amazing things for the Jedi cause in figuring out where outposts were and where the leaders of the Separatist movement might be stationed or where they would hide. But it was always like she was trying to find an answer for a question even she didn't know. And I think…I think her Master's death may have driven her more into it, as well. When Mastser Josall was still alive, I don't think she could really be afraid of anything."

"Were there any other places that she tended to hang out?"

Matri'a considered this for a moment.

"Before her Master was killed, he would drag her to Dex's Diner."

"Maybe I'll go there later. By the way, when I first got here, you were muttering in a language I didn't really understand. What was it?"

"It was Ryl, the language of my people," replied the girl, slightly surprised.

"Do you think I could learn it?"

"It would be practically impossible to fully make use of it for a human. It requires lekku."

"Right. Okay. Um…any languages you'd suggest that I learn that are used a lot?" Matri'a was still a little bewildered by the questions. "Here's the thing: I'm a linguist where I grew up. I revel in languages and adventure and mystery."

"Bocce is a common trade language for spacers. Huttese would be a good choice because, if you're on missions, you're bound to run into a Hutt or one of their minions at some point. Mandalorian can help if you run into one of those people; they're not exactly warm to strangers. Rodese you'll want to understand at least, just in case you run into one of those rats. Wookieespeak…another good one to understand, but, with all of the growls and howls involved, it's really hard to learn yourself. Jawaese is good to at least understand for the off-chance of going to Tatooine. That's a start, at least."

Kim felt a mix of excitement and dread at all of the languages she could and would have to learn. She wasn't like most Americans, who refused to even try to learn another language; she thought languages were thrilling.

"You gonna be okay handling this research yourself? I'd offer to help, but it's not exactly my strong point…and I know barely anything about these computers."

"Yeah. I'm fine. Why don't you go to Dex's Diner now? You might be surprised by how much you discover about yourself there."

* * *

"Sheena! How are you adjusting to being back home?"

"Seriously? Does everyone know?

"Inside the Jedi Temple, most people; outside, only those with good connections."

Kim smiled crookedly, leaning back in the booth she had claimed in Dex's Diner. A rather large alien with three sets of arms had hastily come over for a visit after being informed by the robot waitress of Kim's presence. She remembered occasional visits to the diner from her dreams, but she was learning that this reality was ten times as rich as her fantasies. This was no exception. She instantly decided that she liked this Dexter.

"Know what you want, little lady?"

"Yes and no…?"

"Ah," the alien sighed with a kind look, sitting across from Kim by squeezing himself into the booth. "Having a tough time of it?"

"Again, yes and no."

"Isn't anyone helping you find out who you are in this galaxy?"

"I've heard more than enough about Sheena Lerann and her past. What confuses me is _my _place here and _my _future."

"How so?"

"I had these dreams ever since I was a child that I now realize were of life here. Most of the time, it was of Sheena's past or present. But, after I got here, I found that some of the things I saw…haven't happened yet."

"From what I've seen, it's not terribly uncommon for Jedi to sometimes have visions of the future."

"But I didn't grow up as a Jedi. On Earth, having visions is more evidence of insanity rather than talent. I knew I had some special abilities, but I was dreaming of life here. I lived on Earth, but my heart, I guess, was always here. On top of that, I haven't had any visions whatsoever since I got here; I thought the visions would increase, if anything."

"Maybe I can get you something to ponder it for a while."

"The 'usual'?"

Dex grinned and squeezed himself out of the booth.

"I like the new you already, young Jedi."

As she was left to ponder her thoughts, a pang went through Kim's heart. This was the same booth she and Master Josall had always sat in when they visited this place. What would he think of all this? Did he sense that maybe all this would happen?


	9. Back in the Saddle

Back in the Saddle

"Wie gehts dir?"

"Gut. Und dir?"

"Sehr gut."

"Sind wir kämpfen heute?"

"Ja. Du bist schnell lernen, Kim."

"Danke."

"How many languages have you been working on over the summer so far?"

"I'm close to fluent in German and French, conversational in Russian and Arabic, and I know some phrases of Hebrew and Farsi."

"All right. I would focus more on Hebrew and Russian for now; she was proficient in those at the eighth grade. If you're going to be caught up for your first and final year at college, you'll have to have those down for sure."

"Easy for you to say, Jake. I'm trying to make myself an expert Earth student in the span of three and half months. I'd say I am doing a pretty good job."

"You are. It's only been two months and you've already integrated nicely back into human society. You baffled me with your math skills."

"What you call calculus I was taught at the age of twelve. That part wasn't hard. Are we going to spar or not?" the young woman urged, eyeing the wooden staffs in the corner of the empty school gym they had taken over.

"Why not spar with me and have more of a challenge?" Rick jibed with a smile upon entering the room.

Sheena – now Kim – narrowed her eyes with slight disapproval. She had a colorful opinion of both males. Jake was a smart, often quiet young doctor with the mind of a genius. He was quite caring and open. However, he also could be very determined and pushy when it came to increasing Sheena's knowledge and resented being wrong. Rick was strong, mouthy, sarcastic, and had a soldier's organizing skills. He was protective and caring, but he was also a little pushy; Sheena could never tell if he was flirting or not. Both of them were learning to trust her more each day.

"Why, Captain America?" Jake muttered. "Haven't reached your quota for showing off for the day?"

"It's Lieutenant America and I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Oh," the former Jedi pouted with a sarcastic smirk as she starting experimenting with her practice staff, "my boys fighting over me. How sweet. Can we get on to a little sparring now, please?"

This would be the perfect time for her to show off her new abilities. The other Kim – the real Sheena – had given her a good head start with a fit body and excellent flexibility, but the new girl had taken it to new heights with the knowledge and training from her Jedi days that had been sitting on the backburner while she did her research for the Jedi.

"It's my turn," grumbled Jake.

"Oh. You _both _can fight me…and each other if you want. How's that? It'll certainly be interesting."

* * *

"_Mistress Sheena, how are you doing on this fine evening?"_

"_Just fine, Dex. The other Jedi have been driving me like a workhorse to learn the Code and all the fighting skills under the sun. You know what I could use?"_

"_The usual?"_

"_You got it."_

_Dex walked away and came back with the desired drink. The woman formerly called 'Kim' by those who raised her winced as she drank deeply the contents of the steaming mug._

"_That bad?"_

_Sheena took another swig before replying, her eyes full of uneasiness._

"_I thought it would be easier…fitting in to the life of the Jedi. After all the visions I had, I felt that I knew enough to go off of for this training…but some of the visions aren't in line with this reality. In my dreams, the Form II fighting style felt perfectly natural, but my body here automatically reacts to things in a more defensive style that my mind can't comprehend. I've dreamt of clones hunting me down and shooting at me, but, here, they obey my every whim whenever I encounter them. There are some people that are older than in my dreams, some younger; some I feel like I've never seen before and others I have yet to see."_

"_And you don't have those dreams now?"_

"_Not since I got here. Those dreams were part of me. But what I remember seems to just be…out of order. I tried to organize them, but there's just so much. I used to thrive on my dreams...now, they're gone."_

"_You'll come along, young Jedi," Dex grunted, noting more customers entering the establishment. "There's more to you than just dreams. Whatever you saw back then isn't bound to the now. I think the future you've seen scares you. Maybe you're here to change that."_

"_Our maybe I'm here to help it. Dooku wasn't surprised by me - just my abilities. There are forces that seem to be guiding me…somewhere. Something is out there waiting for me. See that guy in the corner? The one who thinks he's all invisible in that cloak? I think he's watching me."_

"_He works for Chancellor Palpatine, if I recall correctly."_

"_Palpatine has been interested in talking to me ever since I got here."_

Sheena was in the process of climbing into the tram when the cloaked man from Dex's grabbed her arm and pulled her to the side. He was short and thin, but mildly attractive.

"Sheena Lerann?" he asked quietly.

"So I've been told," the girl grumbled.

"The chancellor wants to speak with you. If you'll follow me, there's a transport waiting. We'll meet him in the Executive Building."

"Lucky me."

* * *

The battle had been bitter. Yes, battle was the word for it, not 'sparring' or 'practicing'. Either latter term suggested some sort of restraint and an attempt to not kill each other. The boys had been fierce with each other. Whenever their female friend decided to try getting some of the action herself, they ignored her. It had been incredibly irritating – she didn't like being ignored – until she hit Jake over the head with her stick to stun him, shove him to the side, and attack a rather surprised Rick. Taking advantage of that, she bashed her stick against his repeatedly as fast as she could, forcing him to take a few steps back.

Then, Rick rallied. When he wanted to be, during these practice bouts, the man could be…brutal when he so desired…or when he lost control. On the surface, he was a Kirk-like character with not a care in the world. When something angered him, however, his military training could be applied with deadly force, even if he didn't intend it to do so. As a mutant, he was exceptionally strong, healed quickly, and had a brilliant tactical mind. In a fight, a normal human wouldn't be able to last long since Rick could practically predict and foil every move of his opponent…sometimes, she thought he could see bits of the future. But Kim wasn't an ordinary girl.

Sure, she wasn't your traditional mutant (well, she wasn't a mutant in any way), but something about her switch into the Jedi galaxy and back had done something over the years. She was tougher, faster, smarter, and more efficient with healing than normal. She wasn't quite as strong or good at prediction as Rick – she was still adjusting to not having the Force upon which to rely – but she could hold her own…for a while.

Yeah, Kim landed a few blows – maybe bruised a couple of his ribs – but she had several welts on her legs and hands from his practice rod making contact with her own flesh. At this point, she was exhausted. She had proven her point that she could hold her own and was now just curious as to what had gotten Rick so agitated.

"Stop!" she chimed, like a referee calling out a foul. Rick halted in mid-swing. Jake, after being taken out earlier, had long settled with a seat on the floor while his head stopped spinning. "Now that we've had our fun, do you mind telling me why you're on the rampage?" The former soldier straightened and silently went back to replace his weapon on the large rack. "Jake, what did you do?"

"Me?! I did nothing," the other man squawked, standing and perfectly throwing his staff across the room onto the rack…a result of his talents. "Although, I don't think it's just one thing that's making our friend…uneasy. There's been some disturbing news that I just found out before getting here. I assume they called you as well, Rick?" The older man grunted an affirmative. "We got a call from the X-men that there's been some rumors about Magneto's old friends learning about us…about you. We're just…worried."

"Why? How many are there?"

"Well, the thing is that they might be attached to the government in some way...or they might be a completely separate group. None of the X-men have been able to figure out any details. But someone knows that you're not a normal mutant and they're getting curious."

"Why? I'm not that special. I'm certainly not normal, but it's not like I can lift things with my mind or control water. You can at least _guide _things with your mind."

"I can calculate precision, that's all. That aside, I just think you should be a bit more careful, especially when you go back to school. I'll be there a lot, but I won't be able to watch your back all the time."

Kim scowled darkly, looking between both of them.

"I can take care of myself. Besides, it could be you or Rick they're after, not me."

"We'll see," Rick growled, stalking out. The remaining two exchanged a sympathetic glance…maybe more than sympathy.

* * *

Palpatine's office was…formal, suppressive, and dark…all red and grey. Sheena's escort left her at the main door to go on herself and find the Chancellor behind his desk in stiff robes. She had only seen him a few times in passing since her arrival, as the Council had wished her to avoid meeting the sometimes-too-curious politician until she was more prepared. Despite the kind greeting she was about to receive, the former Californian was confident that she still wasn't prepared for this encounter.

"Mistress Lerann, it is a pleasure to finally meet you…the real you, that is."

The rat of a man smiled kindly, but Sheena instantly took a disliking to him. She considered herself to be a very quick and very good judge of character, and she usually knew whether or not she would like someone within seconds of meeting them. She doubted this was an exception.

"News of my…arrival must travel more than the Council will admit," she stated, painting on a sweet smile as she took the offered seat across from Palpatine at his desk.

"No. I just have excellent sources…and I'm pretty good at deciphering things on my own from the whispers of Coruscant."

"You must have very good ears," the Jedi grumbled before catching herself. Her slip was ignored.

"I have seen you practicing your skills with Anakin Skywalker on a few occasions and I must say I'm…impressed." He was too polite. "I hear that you are in your final training before attempting to regain the true status of Jedi Knight. I also hear that the Force doesn't exist on the planet where you grew up. Has the transition been difficult?"

Sheena had to laugh a little at that.

"Yes and no. This body wasn't in perfect fighting shape when I arrived and I wasn't accustomed to meditating and opening myself up to some outside, encompassing power that could be channeled; and, where I grew up, there weren't any other known populated planets, no non-human sentient beings, and no speed-of-light passenger ships. On the other hand, I never felt like I belonged there. I would have dreams of being here, living Sheena's life and seeing it through the eyes of the other me…sometimes. Sometimes, I felt like was just along for the ride…like it had already happened or was happening right then; other times…" She cut off and shook her head, causing Palpatine's eyes to widen a little with interest. She looked up with a grin. "Some of my Jedi abilities crossed over somehow, making me…sort of special. I was turning into quite the vigilante."

"Do you feel like you've lost any power since this last switch?" the man probed.

Finally, Sheena just dropped her smiling façade. It was turning into more a grimace than a smile, anyway.

"With all due respect, Chancellor…why am I here?"

"I simply wanted to see what all of the Jedi were so excited about."

"Excited? I'd be more likely to believe it if you said they wanted me to fail." Again, she had spoken before catching herself.

"Yes, excited. Apparently, they think that their enemies were the ones who sent you away in the first place for fear of you becoming…dangerous."

Sheena remained thoughtfully silent. It would make sense with her dreams. What little she recalled from her original switch made it seem as though someone wanted her as far away as possible; they had hoped she would grow into a weakling. The dreams she saw of her future made it possible that she could prove to be dangerous to the Sith yet. However, in that future, she had been a warrior – confident and unselfish. At the moment, she could fight and use the Force, but she was no warrior compared to most of the Jedi. On the other hand…

"After what the Sith did to me and Kim – tearing us away from our homes and families – they may eventually face something even more dangerous than they feared. You take a child and give her hope and a future they can count on, then take it away – that's enough to make anyone dangerous."

Sheena could have sworn that there was something malevolent in Palpatine's eyes, but it was gone barely after she noticed it and the smile was back.

"Well, if there is a Sith lord out there, he'd better keep on his toes. I think I bothered you with enough questions. Beyond that, another reason I asked you here was because there is a special mission I would ask you to take."

"A mission? Me? What sort of mission?"

"It's something that the Council was already discussing, but I have requested that you take it. There is an old outpost on Corellia that might be a communications base for the Separatists. The information on it isn't enough to send a Master out and I thought it would be a good practice run for you."

"Thank you," Sheena responded flatly, now thoroughly suspicious of this all-too-powerful politician. She couldn't tell why, but the Force she sensed as ever-present felt…on edge in this man's company.

* * *

"Kim, I think we're being followed."

"Oh, well…when it rains, it pours," the former Sheena grumbled, noticing the black car that kept stopping about a block behind her and Jake on their way back to her parents' house. She had hoped they wouldn't have to deal with these rumored 'possibly government agents' for a little while longer, but that was just a hope. "Do you think these might be the same guys who attacked me and Rick when I first arrived?"

"They might at least be from the same group. Rick didn't say much about that night, but I know he was being a double agent for a while, trying to figure out how deep Magneto's old clan went into the government. Unfortunately, he was found out. If not for you stumbling upon them that night, I'm afraid they might have killed Rick."

"I remember. I didn't make the connections then, but they were trying to get Rick to show them where I lived. That's why they were so close. He wouldn't tell them."

"Of course he wouldn't have. He cares about you. We all do."

Kim looked at the ground, feeling suddenly awkward. The black car was getting closer.

"Thanks." Then, she nodded to the approaching vehicle. "Are we going to make a run for it? That's a big car; there could be ten people with guns crammed in there."

"It's not their style; and that car's probably just a six-seater. I'd say five people at most."

"Back to my question…"

"There aren't any side roads or alleys we can escape into. If we run, they'll probably hit us with the car and we won't be physically able to try escaping later. You and I don't heal as fast as Rick does."

"Yes, but, if we're caught, our chances of escaping if they decide to knock us out or tie us up are slim whether we're hit or not."

Jake glared sideways at his companion, growling,

"Well, aren't you just Miss Positive?"

"That's my specialty," she snipped back without missing a beat. "So, are we going to take the whole day planning or are we going to decide whether or not we're going to run?" He didn't say anything for a few seconds. "Listen. If you don't decide, then I'll…"

"We run," he interrupted, bolting forward. Chuckling to herself, Kim took off after him, long waves of hair flowing out behind her. Jake sure didn't like his judgment questioned.

Surprisingly, the car didn't come driving after them; instead, four men got out and started running after the duo. All of them had tranquilizer guns and all wore black clothes and sunglasses. Kim's observation caused her to trip a little. Blast her curiosity!

"Kim, look out!"

Kim tripped again as she felt the sting of a tranquilizer dart in her back.

"Today is not turning out to be my day," she panted, feeling a little faint but able to push past it and catch up to Jake as they rounded a corner into a slightly sketchy-looking part of town. "You said I can resist these things, right?"

"Don't know why, but yeah."

Behind her, the retired Jedi heard their pursuers say something about needing better armaments and backup. She wondered what they meant by the latter, but then she remembered…

"Jake. The car!"

As if on cue, the black car from before pulled out of the cross street ahead and stopped right in their path. Two more men got out of the car and started shooting before the vehicle had hardly stopped. Within a second, Jake was down. Bolting into a sitting position, he instantly went to trying to stem the flow of blood oozing out of his right thigh. These men had real guns! When his companion screeched to a halt and went back to him, wavering herself from the effects of the tranquilizer, he urged,

"Keep running! We can't…Kim are you okay?"

"_Jake! Jake! Don't do this to me again, Jake! Wake up! Please, wake up. Don't leave us. Don't leave me."_

_Kim bent over the man's limp body, her face smeared with grime and marred by a thin white scar under her left eye. The house was in shambles._

"_Wake up, you coward!" He should have heard the insult, if nothing else. "Jake, this is it _not_ the honeymoon you promised me. Wake up before they decide to search for us. Just…" She sighed in defeat and leaned her head on Jake's chest, her entire body throbbing dully. _

_Her eye caught sight of her reflection in a large shard of the shattered bedroom mirror and she stood abruptly in shock to get out of its view. That hadn't been her reflection. She knew that face._

"Kim, are you all right?"

"Yeah," she whispered.

"You're crying."

Paralyzing fear gripped Kim's heart when the men in black put a bag over her head and bound her hands behind her. That face had burned its way into her memory. In the darkness of her head cover, she could see that face. That wasn't her face. She was Kim Weaver. That wasn't her.

* * *

"Kim, are you okay?" Jake hissed, earning what sounded like a smack on his wounded leg.

A jolt in the road caused the woman to bump into someone, who she realized was Jake. Having her hands bound, she settled with scooting close enough so that her arm was snugly press against his. She hoped, if these people planned on hurting them, the people of Earth weren't quite as inventive as the Dark Jedi, bounty hunters, and other lovers of pain she had learned to fear in the other galaxy.

What she guessed was a van had pulled up right after they been blindfolded, in the back of which the couple had been stuffed with at least two of their captors.

As she closed her eyes, that face from her daydream was again before her. She hadn't seen that face since her arrival. Sheena.

Reviews are more than welcome!


	10. Traps

So, this chapter has been revised due to a plot mishap that I realized messed up my timeline within the movies. I previously had it written so that Padmé was already pregnant at this point, but I wanted this part to be earlier, so...here ya go.

Traps

"Padm…" Sheena cut off as the obviously focused senator practically floated by her down the hall soon after the almost-Jedi had left Palpatine's presence. "Wow. Senator Amidala!"

Padmé, startled out of her thoughts, halted in the middle of the hall and looked back. Her deep blue, floor-length, pin-straight gown didn't seem to show any sign of pregnancy, but Sheena was positive that her friend was with child. She thought she remembered Padmé wearing more enveloping clothing during this time, but maybe it was early on…? She was even more beautiful in reality that the woman remembered.

"Oh. You're Sheena Lerann. Anakin has mentioned you a few times."

"He's mentioned you quite a few times," Sheena responded with a grin, catching up. "I wanted to congratulate you."

Padmé's eyes narrowed.

"To what are you referring?"

"Well, your pregna…!" The rest of the word was muffled as the senator rushed over and covered the girl's mouth, away from which Sheena quickly flinched. "Can't I finish a sentence or two? Ow!" She grunted when Padmé dragged her to the side and looked around for any company. The hall was empty.

"Are you trying to get me killed? If you were about to say what suspect, you'd better choose your next words carefully, _Jedi_. What makes you jump to such conclusions?"

"You're not actually pregnant?"

Sheena cringed. She was hitting a few nerves.

"Explain yourself," the other woman demanded quietly.

"No, I…I… You don't…! You haven't heard about my…!" Now Sheena couldn't finish a sentence on her own. She had actually found someone who didn't already know everything about her and it thrilled her. Most everyone had known who she was, what she was, and where she came from; but here was sweet Padmé, who didn't have a clue. On the other hand, it made her a little nervous to find that the senator wasn't actually pregnant. Was this another thing that hadn't happened yet? "No. I won't tell anyone. I'm sorry. I just…" Sheena felt the blood rushing to her cheeks. "Okay. This may take a while to explain, but you are honestly one of my favorite people. What are you doing here, anyway?"

"I wanted to talk to the chancellor about the power he's been taking from the senate since the war started…but he was 'busy'. We used to be good friends, but now…I don't know that man. He was once my best adviser; now, he's just 'the chancellor'."

"It was my fault he was busy. He wants me to go on a mission, but…I'm suspicious. He's free now, if you want."

"I'm going to meet Anakin, so I can't."

"If you have questions, you can come along when Anakin comes to spar with me."

"With you?"

"Dear Padmé, you really don't have to worry. I swear you can trust me."

Sheena's smile sank as Padmé walked off with one more sad and suspicious glance. In some of her visions, she remembered laughing and talking with that precious lady. Maybe that was the future. For now, she could sense Padmé's fear of the Jedi finding out about her marriage, for Anakin's sake. She wasn't friends with Padmé yet, but the circumstances of Sheena training with Padme's husband would bring them together.

* * *

"Is something wrong? You've been a little quieter than usual."

"Sheena Lerann came up to me today. She thought I was _pregnant_. And she knew about us. Did you tell her?"

"The Sheena you met just arrived a couple months ago. When she was a child, someone switched her with another person in the same body. They grew up like that, and then they were switched back again. I don't even think the Council has a clue as to what might be going on. While she was in the other body, Sheena had dreams of living here…and some of them were of the future, and she couldn't always decipher which was which. She probably knew about us but didn't know whether or not it was known to everyone. I don't know why she would think you were pregnant."

Padmé shivered.

"Can we trust her?"

"I think so. I'll make sure."

"Anakin, if she says something, then who knows what the Jedi will do to you. And what if she starts saying things just to get us in trouble. She's a Jedi and we barely know her. What if…"

The senator cut herself off, realizing that her fear for her husband was starting to cause her to be irrational. Anakin, luckily, remained calm.

"I'm sure it's all right, but I'll talk to her."

"She seemed so…happy to see me. But I barely know her. It was very strange."

* * *

Kim had put her enhanced senses to good use as the second the van started moving. They had driven for about twenty minutes and she had kept track of every single turn and bump. From the lack of sound outside, she guessed they were on the outskirts of the city. She couldn't say the street, but she could tell someone how to reach her exactly by the turns, bumps, and sounds…not that it would help them much.

Upon being hauled from the van (still blinded), Kim was moved into a building that smelled of cleaning implements; she could smell little else. Two of her captors guided her down a long hallway, opened a heavy-sounding door, and sat her down on a cold metal chair in a stiflingly hot room. After they left, she heard nothing but her own breathing.

* * *

"Sheena, can I ask you something?"

"Fire away, Anakin," the woman replied cordially, not breaking away from the swing she was aiming at the lad's head with her stick. He dodged it, of course, but it wasn't like him to break focus during their sparring sessions. Her Earth-based phrases didn't faze him at all either, any more.

"I know you used to have visions about this place – past, present…and future."

Sheena blocked his once overwhelming power attack and sent him staggering backwards with a mild Force Push.

"As I've told you a million times, yes."

"You really thought Padmé was pregnant? Is it something you've seen?"

Sheena glanced up, costing her a bruised hip, and consequently put herself into a more focused state that allowed for both conversation and dueling. Something kept her from telling him the full truth. Perhaps revealing that kind of information would somehow ruin that future.

"I…misinterpreted a vision, I guess." Anakin's only response was a slightly more vigorous attack from the side at the girl's head. She dropped to the floor, kicked his legs out from under him, and bounced back up with her 'blade' at his throat. "A bit distracted, I see. Whatever doubts you may still have about me, Anakin, I swear to you that I'm not your enemy." She blinked back the senseless nagging in the back of her mind – like a long-forgotten memory – that warned her against such declarations. "While we may not even be friends yet, I consider Padme like a sister to me. I would never hurt either of you."

"Even so, I'm glad you didn't tell anyone about us. If the Council finds out about us, I…"

"I know," she interrupted, putting her hand on his as it rested on his knee. "You can trust me, Anakin. I won't tell _anyone_. I swear. And I think you would make a wonderful father someday. Maybe the Jedi will change that rule and you two will have a real chance."

She received a shake of the head.

"How?" Anakin got up and went to put his staff away. "How do you know so much and so little? For instance, your fighting style: the old Sheena always used Form IV, but, more and more, you taught yourself to utilize Form II…no easy task. I noticed that leaning from Day One…yet, supposedly, you had never physically used either form. Why?"

"Right before I came here, I had a vision that I was in command of a ship with a bunch of clones with me…and they turned on me. I used that Form and…I don't remember ever feeling so free. I was surrounded and outgunned, but I was free in my own mind."

"If you were surrounded, why use one of the forms most ill-suited for that situation? If some clones, by some fluke, do rebel against you, then you're doomed to repeat your vision…and you'll probably die."

Sheena tried to think of a way to respond. How could she explain that she had no idea if it would happen now that she saw the loyalty of the clones? How could she explain that the acuteness of the freedom she felt in that dream made her not care if she died? How could she tell him that, in that moment, she had never felt more like her real self than ever before?

"There was a…power that…"

The opening door was followed by the appearance of Mace Windu. Sheena greeted him with a deep nod. Windu did not look exactly pleased.

"It seems you'll be having your readiness tested in the field, Sheena. Have you been talking to the chancellor?"

* * *

The hooded chancellor silently congratulated himself as he opened his eyes and stood from his desk. Over the past several days, he had had disturbing dreams of Sheena Lerann. Often, she appeared to be a few years older than the present, but she was always seemed to be fighting a Sith follower…and winning…and it always ended with her rushing at him with lightsaber, ready to strike.

Now, however, his vision was quite different this time. The child was quite helpless, quite desperate, and quite dead. If Dooku didn't fail him again, their plans would proceed perfectly.

* * *

Kim awoke to something sharp stabbing into her arm. She tried to shake off the stinging, but someone was holding her quite securely in place on her chair. Her arms were being held at a very awkward angle as her hands were still tied behind her back and they were apparently trying to extract some blood from her median cubital vein.

Her neck and back ached from sleeping slumped over in the chair and she could barely feel her hands.

"What…what are you doing?" she groaned, shaking her head a little. "You're not going to find anything." She cringed as the needle left her arm. "Where's Jake? If you're not going to answer my questions, at least let me use the bathroom."

Surprisingly, they obeyed this request...or so it seemed. They dragged her to her feet, opened a door, and pushed her forward. She still sensed the presence of someone behind her.

"Go."

She scoffed.

"For one thing, my hands are tied and I have a bag over my head; secondly, I have a very shy bladder, so we're going to be here a while if you keep standing there."

Seemingly surprised that she had even sensed him still there, her guard swiftly cut the bindings on her wrists and closed the door with a loud thud. Her wrists screamed in pain as soon as the chords fell away and exposed the welts to the open air. Her hair, she realized as she removed the stuffy sack, was a frizzy disaster.

The bathroom was all clean white tile and stainless steel; a barred window with clouded glass sat just within arm's reach overhead; and the door was smooth hardwood painted black. Like the window, the air vent in the ceiling appeared to also be secure, though possibly bypass-able screws were visible there.

What was this place? And where was Jake? In paying such close attention to remembering the turns and bumps of the road earlier, she hadn't noticed whether they had been separated, or whether her companion had simply been extra quiet. She hoped he was okay.

A few minutes later, she kicked the solid door and was met by the muscular form of her guard, still carrying her hood. She made a panicked scan of the room beyond as he moved to replace her mask; however, he was halted as another man spoke,

"I think that's no longer necessary. Handcuff her and bring her back in here."

The guard consequently gently grasped Kim's upper arm and guided her firmly back to the metal chair in the middle of the white-walled room. Instead of just having her hands tied behind her back, there were four sets of handcuffs that secured her wrists to the armrests and her ankles to the crossbars of the legs. The room was about thirty feet wide and twenty feet long; natural light trickled in through the two frosted windows, adding to the light from the several fluorescent bars overhead; and the exit was another heavy black door. Jake was nowhere in sight.

Her guards consisted of three burly men in black, plus the speaker from a moment previously. This fellow was in his mid-thirties with short dirty blond hair, greenish blue eyes, and a five-o'clock shadow; unlike his companions, he was wearing tan slacks and a well-fitting navy blue dress shirt with the two top buttons undone. Kim couldn't help but admit to herself that he was _quite_ attractive. He seemed to note her quick examination of her surroundings. It would be no use trying to play the innocent bystander with this man.

Blowing a strand of curls out of her face, she offered the apparent interrogator a tight smile, saying,

"So, are you going to finally tell me why I'm here or are you going to give me the silent treatment for another hour or two?"

The man's chuckle was accompanied by a winning smile as he grabbed the other chair a few feet away from Kim, turned its back to her, and sat down.

"My apologies," he finally said. His tenor voice had an American tone, perhaps with a hint of a Bronx accent. "I'll be sure that changes." Was that supposed to be a reassurance or a threat? It wasn't clear. "You seem to have a fairly level head, Kim. Can I call you Kim? You see, the people I work for have been watching you quite intently over the past couple of years. This is the first time someone's been able to actually get to you without causing too much of a scene."

"You consider stalking me, chasing me down at least five city blocks, shooting at me, and stuffing me into a van not too much of a scene? What must you have tried before?"

"Well, we blew up a train station…but you were here for that…or at least your body was."

Kim's eye twitched as she realized that she had given away that particular update. She would have to be more careful with her words.

"So was my brain. Your point?"

His smile returned, but his laugh was a little darker.

"Don't play games with me, Miss Weaver. Your DNA has none of the anomalies found in all other mutants, yet you have the abilities of a mutant. Some of my associates want to either dissect or just kill you, but I have a little more pull. I thought you and I could just talk. Tranquilizer darts take ages to affect you; you outran all of my men until your companion was shot; you've jumped fifteen feet to get onto a rooftop; I've seen you flee ambushes when they were three blocks away; and I've seen you walk out of a collapsing train station completely unscathed."

"You seem to have seen a lot."

He smirked.

"I have my own…talents."

"You know my name, but I don't know yours."

"How 'bout I tell you my name when you tell me your secret. Are you able to hide your mutation, are you genetically engineered, or are you perhaps from another planet?"

Kim snorted, forcing herself to find amusement in this situation.

"Those are your theories? You'll have to do better than that."

"That's the plan."


	11. Penultimate Resolution

Penultimate Resolution

"Mistress Lerann?"

Sheena jerked her head at the familiar face. She didn't think she would ever be used to the clones, but they had been more than helpful so far.

"Yes, Commander?"

"We've arrived at Corellia." The name struck a chord deep within the girl every time she heard it. "Your shuttle is ready. We'll rendezvous with you in two days. That should give you time to find a way into the base and escape."

"Thank you."

Unfortunately, there wasn't much known about this base. Not many of the locals knew or cared about it, so it was surprising that the Jedi had discovered its existence.

* * *

Jake flinched as a lady in a white lab coat dabbed at the gunshot wound in his leg, attempting to clean it after his interrogator had tried to use the pain to get him to reveal the people he was working with. His blood had made a small puddle on the floor around his chair. Concern filled him as he thought of his own interrogation. What would they do to Kim?

* * *

"Would you like to see your friend? He seemed quite concerned about you."

"What did you do to him?" Kim snarled, her smile dropped. Pretty Boy had been beating around the bush, asking questions ranging from where she was born to where her abilities came from to her major to her favorite dessert. He never got completely satisfactory answers.

"Nothing drastic yet, but that's all up to you. If we know how you hide your mutation or where you got your abilities from, things will be a lot easier."

Her smirk came back as she thought of the tale she could tell.

"You wouldn't believe the truth if it hit you in the face."

"Really? Do enlighten me."

"I'd rather be thrown to a rancor for dinner."

"All right." The interrogator arose with a defeated mask of a look. "So, maybe you don't care about your own safety. But what about your friend?"

Kim's stomach dropped. A few months ago, she may have caved for her own safety since there was no one after her dead Master whose life she had ever willingly put before her own. What was this new desire to protect Jake? It made her strong when it came to her own life being threatened, but if they hurt him…

"What friend?"

"Jake. We cleaned up the gunshot wound and he heals quickly enough on his own, but his continued health is entirely up to you." Despite Kim's blank expression, he smiled victoriously. "I'll let you think about that while I go fetch him."

* * *

"_Kim, you said you don't remember anything from before last week. Um…do you know where you're from, where you were born?"_

_The girl, without thinking, spat out,_

"_Corellia."_

_The woman looked confused._

"_Wait. Where?"_

"_Corellia?"_

"_Honey," Kim's mother chided, kneeling in front of the child, "there's no such place. Corellia doesn't exist."_

"_But…I thought…" The girl felt tears threaten to come to her eyes. She felt lost; her memory was shredded. Corellia was one thing that she thought she could count on to be real._

Corellia. Her homeworld. It hadn't just been a childhood fantasy! She was home.

Sheena couldn't help but smile as she walked through the city streets. Certainly, the Jedi temple was where she lived and thrived, but this was the place of her origins. Something about the people made her blood boil. They seemed peaceful enough, but there was something about them that made her pity whoever tried to control them in the past or future.

Her thoughts wandered to her parents. Had they given her to the Jedi willingly when she was a baby, or had she been an orphan? Even as memories of her childhood trickled in, she didn't recall ever knowing anything about her origins other than that she was from Corellia and her last name was Lerann. It wasn't something that she was desperate to investigate, but it would have been nice to know.

The almost Jedi was shocked back into reality when someone snatched the pouch from her belt that held a small amount of credits she had been given for incidentals. The culprit - a dirty, brown-haired young boy - easily slipped through the crowd into a side street. Having had plenty of experience with street chases back on Earth, Sheena saw this as more of an amusement than an insult. She easily slipped through the throng after the boy, chasing him down the side road and into an empty alley of sorts with a few small escape routes.

The woman didn't give the lad a chance to utilize one of these getaways, however, as she used Force Pull to yank the pickpocket off his feet. He landed with a resounding 'oomph' on his backside, giving Sheena the time to catch up and stand over him. She put her left hand on her hip, pulling back her robe enough to reveal her lightsaber and show the boy that she wasn't to be toyed with, and reaching her other hand out towards him.

"My pouch, if you don't mind, sir."

With a scowl, he warily stood and returned the pilfered goods.

"You aren't gonna turn me in, are you, lady?"

"No, but I could use some help with directions. I'm looking for an old outpost of sorts. We suspect that the Separatists might be using it as a communication hub. And please don't lie to me."

He scowled for a moment longer, never breaking eye contact, but then he finally motioned behind him.

"The only old outpost I can think of is east of here, just outside the city. I've seen a couple of ships land over there over the past couple of weeks."

Sheena stared back for a moment to try to judge whether he was lying, but she sensed no deception. Tossing him a couple of the credits from her pouch, she said simply,

"Thanks, kid."

He looked at the credits with mild disgust.

"I don't need a charity drive."

"But stealing them is okay? Those are for the information, not out of pity."

Seeing that there was no more to be said, the boy stuffed the credits in his belt and jogged away while Sheena watched him sadly, hoping that he would be able to get above being a pickpocket at some point in his life.

* * *

"What are you doing to him?"

"Well, the thing is: I'm a mutant too. And my little talent is making people see what I want them to see. Not like hallucinations; they can have their eyes sealed shut and I can still show them their deepest fears."

Kim looked back at Jake, who was handcuffed to a chair across from her. His eyes were shut as tightly as possible, he was grinding his teeth, and he was clinging to the arms of the chair with a death grip. She tried to force herself not to care, but she didn't know how long she could stand watching her new friend suffer.

"What… What are you making him see? Look, just stop. Please."

"If I stop, can we have our talk?"

"You wouldn't believe me."

* * *

The base on the outskirts of the Corellian city was seemingly abandoned; however, there was evidence of shuttles landing in the grass nearby and tracks leading to the entrance. It was an unimpressive building. It covered about an acre of land, being apparently only one level. The entrance was all concrete and metal, but the roof was made like a hobbit hole; from above or behind, it would just look like a big hill. Complete silence reigned over the outpost. Was anyone even here?

Not taking any chances, Sheena slunk over to the side of the entrance, out of sight. It was a good thing she was hidden because, a moment later, two men in brown uniforms emerged and walked around the corner. Before the door could close again, the Jedi caught it and slipped into a long, dim hallway. No one was in sight, but something about it didn't feel right. Just in case, she unclipped her lightsaber from her belt and held it ready to engage. The hall seemed to cover the length of the building with a number of doorways branching off, including one that indicated stairs going down. She still saw no one.

Suddenly, a light flickered and she heard a shoe scuff against the floor.

* * *

"_I say we take a trip, Jake…somewhere secluded but not too exotic."_

"_So…the Yukon?"_

_She snorted._

"_Hardly. Canada doesn't sound bad though." Jake looked over at Kim as she scrubbed at her hair with a towel, still attempting to dry it after her shower from twenty minutes ago. He couldn't help but smile just staring at her as he leaned against the bedroom doorway. She suddenly paused. "What?"_

_In a split second, an explosion ripped through the house, sending both of them flying. The bedroom windows and mirrors shattered, sending glass flying everywhere. _

"_Kim, are you okay?" he called._

"_I think so."_

_Before they could figure out what had happened, another blast hit the structure. This time, part of the roof caved in and a large beam hit the young man on the back of the head. _

_Jake found himself unable to move, falling through endless darkness. Even so, he could faintly here Kim's voice, though it sounded far away._

"_Jake! Jake! Don't do this to me again, Jake! Wake up! Please, wake up. Don't leave us. Don't leave me. Wake up, you coward! Jake, this is it _not_ the honeymoon you promised me. Wake up before they decide to search for us. Just…" He felt pressure on chest and heard a soft sob, but it stopped before too long. A few moments of complete silence passed. He knew he had missed something. When she spoke again, there was an edge to her voice. "No… Please, just leave us alone. Get off! Stop…!" Her scream was muffled, as was her call for someone – he couldn't tell what the name was._

_Now, he heard a new voice. It addressed him by name, but he didn't recognize it. The woman's voice was low, soothing, and calm, but urgent._

"_Jake, you have to wake up. Jake, she needs you. Jake!"_

Jake forced his eyes to open despite the pain shooting through into his temples. He was back in his spacious cell by himself, handcuffed to the metal chair. It appeared to be night; sunlight no longer came in through the windows and the fluorescent bulbs overhead were slightly dimmed.

He only vaguely remembered the past few hours. A fellow completely full of himself tried to play the nice card in asking about the origins of Kim's abilities. When he hadn't said anything, he had been blindfolded, moved to another room, and handcuffed to another chair. He remembered hearing Kim's voice and seeing her for a few moments, but everything else was a pure nightmare. A blur of images – torture, darkness, fire, seeing Kim hurt – danced through his mind.

Then, he woke up back here. He wasn't blindfolded and there wasn't anyone else in the room, but there was no foreseeable way to get free. Meanwhile, he studied his surroundings to find a possible escape route. Maybe Kim would have more luck.

* * *

Kim hissed as she bumped her head again. The ventilation shaft was barely big enough for her to comfortably crawl through; Jake would have a harder time of it.

After her interrogator and his goons had left her alone for the night, the girl had managed to retrieve the bobby pins that held her hair out of her face and use them to release the handcuffs on her wrists and ankles. The screws on the air vent in the bathroom took a painfully long time (and three of her bobby pins) to remove, but she managed and was finally moving in the direction she had seen the guards take her friend.

She turned a few corners, but then she found a vent that offered a nice view of the hallway. Kim held her breath as she continued to slink along; there was a guard directly below her. The next vent showed another bathroom. This time, she caught sight of a familiar personage.

"Jake!" she half-whispered, catching the young man's attention. "See if you can get the guard to let you use the bathroom."

He nodded and called for the guard, who, just as planned, un-cuffed the prisoner and led him to the adjoining room. As soon as the door was closed, Kim shot two bobby pins through the vent so that Jake could get started on unscrewing it. After a minute, he flushed the toilet so the guard didn't get suspicious. By the time he had let the faucet run for a few seconds, Kim had joined him.

"So, do you have a plan?" he whispered.

She shrugged.

"Overpower the guard and get out of here. Well, go on and let him know you're done."

Shaking his head, Jake got the guard's attention. As soon as the door opened, the duo launched themselves at the man and rendered him unconscious before he could raise an alarm. Kim then proceeded to search him, consequently tossing a handgun to Jake and keeping a set of keys and a knife to herself.

"Kim…we have to be extra careful. This man…he's really dangerous. He's paid to recruit mutants for his boss and…hunt down the ones that are a threat."

"Well then, we'll just have to make sure we get out of here before he catches us."

* * *

"Is the cell secure, Captain?"

"For the tenth time, yes. You told me to 'make the cell secure,' so I made the bloody cell secure! Who's the guy you wanted to catch, anyway? Does it have anything to do with the Separatist conflict? - 'cause I don't want anything to do with that."

"That is none of your concern."

"Brilliant. You know, if you hadn't been holding my ship hostage…" He cut off upon seeing that the imposing old man was starting to lose patience. Between having his only transport off of Corellia taken over by these guys and being offered practically a fortune to re-secure the old base, he hadn't exactly had a choice. On top of it all, they hadn't told him anything about who they were or why they wanted this place so airtight. "Fine. Where are those credits you promised me?"

The instant he was tossed the bulging pouch, Onasi went through the door and around the corner; however, something made him stop. The booming voice of his 'employer' easily carried his words to the captain's ears.

"Let her sit there for a day or two. No food or water. Then I will talk to her. Sheena Lerann may yet make an excellent pawn for my Master."

Sheena Lerann. That was the girl he had saved when the Jedi hired his ship for that mission a few months previously. And the Sith?! For one thing, it disgusted him to think that he had been working for those people; for another, what did they want with Sheena? It seemed that they were planning on trying to turn her to the Dark Side...but could he allow that to happen? Did he value his own skin more than the life of a strange woman who would probably just give him a 'thank you' and a few credits for rescuing her? If he was going to risk his neck for one woman, he wanted a guarantee that he would get more than a pat on the head.

Captain Onasi went up the stairs and stopped again, looking back. He was going to regret this.


	12. Countdown Finding

Quick note: I went back and changed a few scenes in the chapter "Traps" because I realized that I wanted this part of the story to still be placed before Padmé's pregnancy.

Countdown Discovery

"Sir, I have some bad news." Griffin scowled at the bemused guard who had just burst into his office. "The girl's gone. I went to check on her just a minute ago. She was gone and the vent in the bathroom had been removed."

Griffin cursed and grabbed his walkie-talkie.

"Douglas, come in. Douglas, do you copy? Looks like we had a double breakout, but they haven't escaped us yet."

With a grim smirk, the man got up and moved over to a control panel to utilize the building-wide speaker system.

* * *

Kim fell rather ungracefully out of the air vent, only being prevented from having her head cracked open on the floor by Jake. They had found themselves in a storage room or rough-around-the-edges lab of sorts. They had yet to see any sign of the exit, but at least no one was around to catch them.

"How big is this building?" the male grumbled, popping his neck and massaging his right shoulder. While it was the safer route, the vent had indeed been a tight squeeze for him. "Do you think we took a wrong turn?"

"I don't know, but look at this stuff – computers, files, vials of chemicals… They have a pretty nice setup here."

"Great. You can copy their decorating choices when we get out of here."

The young people froze upon hearing the live voice coming from the speaker overhead.

"I hear you two got out of your cells. Commendable. However, now that we are aware of your little jaunt, I've doubled the security around the perimeter of the building and we're doing a room-to-room sweep; so, if you think you've won, think again."

* * *

"Doubtful of this mission am I. Not ready was Mistress Lerann."

"She has been progressing impressively in her training. Is it not right that we should encourage her progress with something that doesn't involve her being cooped up in the Temple?"

Yoda, floating down the hallways in his little hover chair, looked thoughtfully at Mace Windu.

"Troubled am I that Chancellor Palpatine was so supportive of her taking this assignment. Face her trials she may while on Corellia."

"But Sheena hasn't even finished her training to reclaim her title as Jedi Knight. What threat could she yet pose to anyone connected with the Chancellor?"

"Clouded is Sheena's past and future. Still we do not know the reasoning behind her body switch all those years ago. Once this mystery is solved, the culprits behind Sheena's original abduction may be revealed."

* * *

Jake smiled at his friend's stormy expression even as Griffin continued to talk while they dug through the lab to find any more weapons. His smile disappeared when he saw the computer records.

"Looks like Griffin and his scientists have been working on something big…something about introducing a mutant gene into a normal human DNA strand."

"Didn't they already try that a few years ago?" Kim responded, looking at the data over his shoulder. "It failed miserably, if I recall correctly."

"Yes, but these guys have been trying to fix whatever went wrong. And it looks like they are close."

"Too close. They're planning to start animal testing next week."

Griffin's voice finally hit a nerve:

"Isn't this just like old times, Jake? Me and my junior partner in a secret lab together playing mind games…except, now the game is cat-and-mouse and I have sensitive materials that I don't want getting out of this facility. If you're just wandering around harmlessly, then we can just go back to where we were a few hours ago. If not, however, I can't let that information get out, regardless of how much you talk. By tomorrow, you'll wish you were dead."

Jake refused to look at Kim, even though he could feel her eyes burning holes in the side of his head. For the moment, she left him alone and discussed what was before them.

"Not exactly the most tactful fellow. If we hadn't known about this stuff before, we would have now. I think these are the vials that should contain the serum they were planning on testing. We'll take one for study."

Jake shook himself and turned off the computer.

"They should have a self-destruct trigger somewhere…maybe in the security room I saw a little ways back."

In silence, they crawled back into the vent.

Five minutes later, they were in the security room with two guards on the floor – one dead and one unconscious. Jake stood aside as Kim accessed the computer to the find the self-destruct sequence.

"Kim…I know you're wondering about what Griffin said."

"I'm not sure I know what you're talking about," she deadpanned, brushing a strand of hair out of her face and keeping her eyes focused on the computer as she continued to type away.

Jake pushed away his frustration while accessing the security cameras on the second computer. Ever since the switch, Kim was, while understanding and helpful, somewhat slow to trust and closed off. A year ago, he knew he didn't stand a chance with the old Kim – she never showed any interest in being anything more than friends – but this was something else. She was a good person with a kind heart and he wanted more than anything to ask her on a date, but every time she got close to telling him anything about her personally other than her background, she pushed him away again. There was something that had to do with her teacher that she didn't want to let go.

"When I was in med school, before I got connected with the X-Men, Griffin approached me as a representative of a secret government organization that was trying to study mutants – why they got certain abilities and not others. I was fascinated with that at the time and we started working together for nearly a year. He was my mentor, I guess. One day, he told me that our boss wanted us to start working on ways to control the mutations. I found out that it was another attempt to control the natural way of things and left before they could stop me. I sought out the X-Men and found that they were more than helpful and worthy of my help. Griffin is a bad guy and needs to be stopped. It's partially my fault that he got this far with his research."

The typing finally stopped.

"I think I found the code for the self-destruct…either that or someone's social security number."

"So…?"

Kim looked at the black-haired man with sympathetic eyes and put her hand gently on his.

"I'm sorry, Jake. I know it's hard to lose someone you look up to and then try to move on. I'm still trying to do that myself." He thought she might offer something more about her own experience, but he was wrong. "Okay. Self-destruct is…counting down. We have five minutes to get out of here."

* * *

"Where, in the name of all sanity, am I?" groaned Sheena upon waking up with her face on the floor. "Must've drank a little too much last night or… Oh."

Small room. White walls. No visible exit. What looked like a metal dentist chair with bindings in the middle of the cell. …and her Force abilities were being suppressed.

Brilliant.

* * *

_**Self-destruct in five minutes. Evacuate immediately**__._

Griffin cursed under his breath and instantly ordered the four technicians nearby to grab whatever files and computers they could salvage. There was no time for anyone to retrieve the serum or the formulas.

He was going to destroy Jake and that little girlfriend of his, one way or another.

* * *

Anakin and Obi-Wan walked in comfortable silence following a rather grueling, yet successful, negotiation with a Separatist planet interested in rejoining the Republic. The young Jedi Knight could not be happier being partnered with his former Master so often on missions.

"How is Sheena Lerann progressing in her training?" Obi-Wan queried kindly. "I suppose being suddenly dropped into this galaxy wasn't exactly easy for her."

"We only train a few times between missions; however, she's a hard worker and it's paid off. She has naturally good instincts and the attention she gave to her previous visions gave her a head start. Every time I see her, she's more comfortable with her own self, her surroundings, the Force, and the people. It still surprises me every time she smiles; she never used to do that so often."

Obi-Wan nodded.

"She'll make a good Jedi. I hope one day to become more acquainted with her, perhaps after you get yourself another…" Kenobi went quiet, not wanting to bring up the memory of Anakin's lost padawan, Ahsoka Tano, who, after her trial and near-conviction, was now wandering that galaxy in pursuit of her own path. "I'm sorry, Anakin."

"Don't be. I'm sure Sheena would be more than happy to get more acquainted with you. She's mentioned you a few times."

"Has she now? Hm."

"I think she's bit starstruck by the great General Kenobi," Anakin teased further.

"Anakin, Sheena, unlike you, seems to understand the concept of professionalism." Anakin simply smiled at the jibe. "Ever since she first came here, she has worked tirelessly to become the best Jedi possible…and she seems quite content with it."

"I'm not so sure."

* * *

"Run. Run. Run!"

"Shut up! I'm running!"

_**Self-destruct in thirty seconds.**_

"Jake!"

"We're almost there."

"Come on! Hurry up! We don't have all day."

Kim caught sight of the exit sign ahead and gave another burst of speed. A few seconds later, she burst through the double doors into the glaring, boiling sunlight, continuing to stumble forward despite her impaired vision. Behind her, she could faintly hear the countdown.

_**Self-destruct in ten…**_

As her eyes adjusted, Kim looked around behind her.

_**Seven, six…**_

Where was Jake?

"Jake!"

_**Three, two…**_

She ran forward.

_**One.**_

The blast knocked Kim backwards and sent metal fragments flying every which way. As soon as the shockwave died away, the woman bounced back up, screaming,

"Jake! Jake!" Her voice cracked with the effort she put into the call. "JAKE! Ja…"

Through the smoke to the left staggered a coughing figure.

"Kim!" he hollered back, jogging with her a little ways away from the burning structure. Like her, he had a few cuts and was covered in dust. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah. Are you? When I didn't see you get out, I…" She cut off as tears came to her eyes at the thought of losing her dearest friend.

"I saw another security room just before you lost track of me…thought that, since it was near so many labs, it might have something obviously useful. I grabbed a stash of security recordings and literally jumped out the closest door. This…" He waved a small case with a label that said 'Research Tapes'. "…might just answer a few questions."

"You about gave me a heart attack," the girl growled.

She flinched as Jake wiped some blood away that was dripping down her cheek from a cut under her eye.

"I'll need to stitch that up. It'll probably scar."

"Brilliant…"

"Hey." The young doctor caught Kim's eyes with his own sparkling ones. "You wanna get some coffee on the way to Rick's? I'm sure he'll want an update on what happened to us."

Kim's eyes softened, but she didn't smile.

"Sounds good."

* * *

"Are you all right, sir?"

"Yeah. Were you able to preserve anything?"

The pretty blonde scientist held up a pile of CDs, folders, and external hard drives for him to see.

"There wasn't time to go to the main labs. This is mostly just preliminary research on the serum. I was going to move a sample of it this afternoon, but obviously that didn't happen. There's also some recordings of your interrogations and…"

"Did we get anything on Kim Weaver?" he interrupted with a hiss.

The scientist narrowed her eyes in offense.

"I was just getting to that. We were monitoring her all through her questioning and we were able to get a read on something I've…well, I've never seen anything quite like it before. Some sensors indicated that there was an…energy field of sorts emanating from her."

"A power source for her unique traits?"

"Not like that. If I adjusted the scanner a certain way sometimes…it seemed like she was almost glowing. Ever thought she could be an alien or something?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Penny."

The girl shrugged and walked towards the nearby SUV, pulling back her singed hair with her free hand.


End file.
